Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a viral zoonosis that primarily affects animals but also has the capacity to infect humans. Infection can cause severe disease in both animals and humans. The disease also results in significant economic losses due to death and abortion among RVF-infected livestock. In 2016, RVF was listed as a priority pathogen for which urgent research and development (R&D) is needed, given the absence of efficacious drugs and/or vaccines against RVF and its potential to trigger public health emergencies. The need for safe and effective vaccines and treatments in humans was further underscored in the RVF roadmap for product R&D.
On 1 November 2019, WHO convened members of the R&D Blueprint working group on clinical trial design with RVF experts as well as national representatives from affected countries to discuss the science of vaccine and treatment evaluation for RVF and agree on principles on how to determine whether or not RVF therapeutic and vaccine strategies are safe and effective in humans. Deliberations were informed by key clinical and epidemiological considerations, also recognizing the critical knowledge gaps that well-designed clinical and epidemiological studies could help address to better inform the development of RVF therapeutics and vaccines.
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