Tracking Down Ebola Survivors to Learn From Their Immune Systems

The road into Bundibugyo winds through steep green mountains along Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where villages cling to hillsides and people have long moved easily between the two countries on foot.

When immunologist Jennifer Serwanga returned there in 2024, almost two decades after an Ebola outbreak had swept through the region, the journey from her lab on the shores of Lake Victoria took more than four hours over rough mountain roads. She met with local leaders to explain why she had come back: to study whether survivors’ immune systems carried clues that could help devise treatments ...