NIH: EpiCenter Shutdown Weakens Emerging Virus Detection Efforts

When NIH terminated the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) network in June 2025, it ended support for the EpiCenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence (EpiCenter), led by the University of California, Davis, halting work designed to understand and detect viral emergence at the forest-human interface in regions connected to the Congo Basin and Amazon Basin. EpiCenter combined human, animal, and vector surveillance activities in forest communities—to understand cross-specific disease transmission and spillover from wildlife—and in nearby urban centers—to assess how pathogens adapt to human-to-human transmission and spread. It focused on arboviruses, filoviruses, and coronaviruses, with the goal of optimizing surveillance and testing strategies to improve detection and enable rapid outbreak response. Ending the program undermined a multidisciplinary approach to improving outbreak preparedness and response in high-risk settings where past epidemics have emerged.

The CREID network was established by NIH in 2020 to build outbreak-ready surveillance and research capacity in regions where emerging epidemics are most likely to occur. Through nine research centers, a coordinating center, and more than 100 sites worldwide, CREID linked multidisciplinary teams to study disease transmission dynamics, strengthen local preparedness, and develop improved tools and early warning systems. Its capabilities supported responses to COVID-19 and to outbreaks of Lassa fever, mpox, and other high-consequence pathogens. By operating as a coordinated network, CREID enabled faster sharing of data, specimens, methods, and technical expertise—capabilities that individual projects often cannot sustain. When the centers were terminated in June 2025, the loss was not just individual centers, but a coordinated early-warning and response architecture that supported partners abroad and US preparedness at home.

EpiCenter was led by the University of California, Davis (Davis, CA), with US partners including Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO); the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA), and collaborators in Uganda and Peru.