Advancing Care in Outbreaks of Special Pathogens - IGHS Grand Rounds with William A. Fischer II, MD

Dr. Fischer discussed the advances in the care of patients with Ebola virus disease including supportive care and pathogen-specific therapies and how we are leveraging these lessons learned coupled with new research to advance the care for patients with Lassa fever.

William A. Fischer II, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Director of Emerging Pathogens
The Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine

William Fischer is a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician and Director of Emerging Pathogens at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine with expertise in severe emerging viral infections. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was an Assistant Chief of Service. Dr. Fischer has extensive field experience providing care during outbreaks of high-consequence pathogens in resource-limited settings with multiple deployments as a WHO critical care physician to care for Ebola virus-infected patients in Gueckedou, Guinea – the epicenter of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, N’zerekore in response to a resurgence of Ebola virus disease (EVD), the Democratic Republic of Congo for outbreaks in 2018 and 2019 where he helped launch the use of novel therapeutics, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Korea in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently to Entebbe and Mubende, Uganda for the Sudan virus disease outbreak. Dr. Fischer has active research programs exploring the clinical complications of Ebola virus disease, the prevalence, pathogenesis, and persistence of Lassa Fever (PREPARE study), and served as one of the principal investigators for an NIH study (PREVAIL IV) evaluating Remdesivir for efficacy in reducing or eliminating Ebola virus shedding in male survivors of EVD. He is also the principal investigator for trials evaluating novel antivirals for COVID-19, the critical care specialist for ACTIV-2, and the Vice Chair of the ACTG trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Tecovirimat in MPOX.