Multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) control depends on identifying colonized patients and emerging transmission events early enough to intervene, without overwhelming infection prevention and control (IPC) teams or unnecessarily isolating patients. Predictive models using electronic health records, microbiology data, patient movement, and genomic information may support this task. We propose a practical Predict → Confirm → Act framework for artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented infection control across hospitals and long-term care facilities. In this framework, AI generates risk signals; microbiology, genomic data, and epidemiological review provide confirmation; and IPC teams apply proportionate actions such as targeted screening, preemptive precautions, cohorting, environmental investigation, or de-escalation. The framework is model-agnostic and is intended to shift attention away from algorithmic performance alone toward bedside and unit-level decisions. Safe implementation requires local threshold calibration, named alert ownership, microbiological confirmation pathways, de-escalation rules, prospective monitoring, and evaluation using IPC-relevant outcomes, including additional carriers detected, time to isolation, MDRO acquisition, isolation days avoided, alert burden, and unintended consequences.

The 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic exposed consequences of weak regional preparedness and limited local scientific leadership. The Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with spill over into Uganda threatens to follow the same trend. Beyond the immediate response, this crisis is a defining moment for a question the region can no longer defer: who leads the science when Africa faces epidemics? As a scientific response, we argue for an immediate, regionally led research programme. To do this, ICER makes five priority positions: 1) Conduct of hypothesis-driven research as BDBV is understudied and yet is a high-risk and not a benign strain pathogen, 2) Rapid regional expansion is a realistic scenario, hence respective governments' preparedness frameworks must expedite to accommodate such an expansion, 3) African-led science is essential to an effective response, not merely an equity aspiration but a preparedness imperative, 4) Diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccine development for BDBV cannot await commercial incentives and must be initiated proactively by public institutions, 5) An equitable partnership encompassing local leadership, fair authorship, capacity enhancement, and benefit sharing, is a prerequisite to be negotiated before research begins, and not an afterthought.