NIH’s termination of the CREID network ended WARN-ID, disrupting West Africa–US early-warning surveillance for high-consequence viral threats like Lassa fever.
Cambridge, MA
New Orleans, LA
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
Senegal
When NIH terminated the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) network in June 2025, it ended support for the West African Research Network for Infectious Diseases (WARN‑ID), led by Scripps Research Institute, abruptly disrupting a West Africa–focused effort designed to strengthen early warning for high‑consequence viral threats. WARN‑ID brought together clinicians, epidemiologists, bioinformaticians, and laboratory scientists across the United States, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, and Senegal to monitor and characterize pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, and to translate surveillance into actionable public health insight.
WARN-ID’s work combined pathogen/host surveillance with genomic and computational approaches to understand how viruses, such as Lassa fever, Ebola, and more spill over into humans, how outbreaks start and spread, and how variants evolve over time. It also emphasized development of practical tools to support viral detection and characterization in global settings with constrained laboratory resources. The termination eliminated nearly all capacity for WARN-ID’s work to continue at scale. The Scripps team leading the work has undergone extensive layoffs, shrinking by roughly three-quarters, while critical surveillance activities in partner setting have been curtailed and long-standing scientific linkages disrupted, reducing readiness for future outbreaks.
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.
WARN-ID was led by Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA), with US partners including the Broad Institute (Cambridge, MA) and Tulane University (New Orleans, LA), and collaborators across Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, and Senegal.