About this Event
In May 2026, the health ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in Ituri Province. One of the deadliest diseases in the world with a mortality rate of around 50%, the outbreak has now overtaken the 2014–2016 epidemic as the largest Ebola outbreak in history. The outbreak is unfolding in a region already marked by armed conflict and the displacement of more than one million people. Efforts to contain it face significant security challenges, including attacks on healthcare facilities. At the same time, the freeze on international aid and closure of foreign aid programmes have further squeezed the resources available for the response.
Why wasn’t this outbreak detected sooner, and how large could it become? Where do current efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine stand? And what are the implications for humanitarian assistance organisations? Our expert panel will consider these questions, exploring the epidemiological, security, scientific, and humanitarian dimensions of the outbreak.
Meet the speakers
Tom Solomon (CBE FRCP) is Director of The Pandemic Institute at the University of Liverpool. He studies emerging infections, particularly those affecting the brain, heading the multi-disciplinary Liverpool Brain Infections Group, with programmes in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He is a keen teacher, leading the annual Liverpool Neurological Infectious Diseases course, is an advisor to the UK government and WHO, and a passionate science communicator.
Dr Grace Akello is currently a Visiting Professor at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on gendered transitional justice, pandemic and epidemic preparedness, and how people living through complex health emergencies prioritise and manage everyday challenges. She is currently Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology and Head of the Department of Mental Health at Gulu University’s Faculty of Medicine, where she coordinates the Master of Medical Anthropology Programme.
Chair: Lioba Hirsch is a Lecturer in Geographies of Health at the UCL Department of Geography. She is an interdisciplinary qualitative and archival researcher working at the intersections of critical Global Health, Geography and Anthropology. Her research focuses on antiblackness and colonialism in relation to global and domestic health and humanitarianism.
Prior work has focused on global health institutions, such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2019-2021) Connaught Hospital in Sierra Leone (2021 - 2026) or Médecins Sans Frontières (2021 - 2023) and Global Health events, such as the 2014-2016 West African Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic (2015 - 2019).
Recording
This event will be recorded and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel to be alerted when the recording is uploaded.
Seating
Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. We cannot guarantee you a seat, but it is very unusual that we have to turn someone away.
Accessibility
- The corridor outside the lecture theatre(s) is sufficiently wide enough (150cm+) to allow wheelchair users to pass.
- There is step free access into the lecture theatre(s).
- The door opening width(s) is/are 75cm+ for the lecture theatre.
- There are designated spaces for wheelchair users within the lecture theatre.
- The designated spaces for wheelchairs users are located at the back.
- There is space for an assistance dog.
- There is a hearing assistance system for the lecture theatre.
For more accessiblity info and an access guide please visit Accessable
If you have accessibility needs, please let us know and we will do our best to help.
UCL200
2026 is the year in which we celebrate UCL’s Bicentenary, marking 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first University in London.
UCL Political Science and School of Public Policy are celebrating with a programme of seminars that relate to one of UCL’s core research themes: Fairer Futures
Event venue & nearby stays
Archaeology Lecture Theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, United Kingdom
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.