Dr Jean-Vivien Mombouli

Dr Jean-Vivien Mombouli is a Senior Scientist at the Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. Over 18 years at the National Public Health Laboratory of Congo, one of his key achievements was establishing a community-based surveillance system for monkeypox and Ebola virus outbreaks in the northern regions of the Republic of the Congo and along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This initiative, developed using a One Health approach before it became internationally recognized, enabled the swift containment of an Ebola outbreak in April 2005, with the outbreak resolved in six weeks after 12 reported cases and 10 deaths. Dr Mombouli has collaborated with international partners on field investigations into reservoirs of Ebola, monkeypox, and chikungunya, and has promoted clinical trials for Ebola vaccines during epidemics.

In 2014, Dr Mombouli served as Congo’s special envoy to the President of Guinea to support the Ebola response, contributing key innovations such as the development of the situation report (SITREP), later adopted by WHO, and the creation of Guinea’s National Health Security Agency in 2017. He has served as advisor to two Ministers of Health in Congo, contributing to national health policy in 2005 and 2017, and coordinated the laboratory component of national HIV/AIDS serologic surveys in 2003 and 2009. Dr Mombouli earned his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Physiology and Pharmacology from Poitiers University, France, in 1989, followed by research at Baylor College of Medicine on endothelial control of blood vessels in the laboratory of the late Professor Paul M. Vanhoutte. He has published 64 peer-reviewed articles and reviews and has contributed several chapters to academic textbooks, reflecting his wide-ranging contributions to both basic science and public health.