The Emerging Viral Diseases Unit, CIRMF, proposes forming a research partnership to study infectious diseases transmitted by animals of the tropical rain forests regions of Equatorial Africa. The proposed partnership builds on such existing collaborations of several years between the major research centers of 2 other French speaking Equatorial African countries, namely the National Public Health Laboratory in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, and the Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. An international partnership with the IRD, Marseille, France, and the Institute of Virology, Bonn, Germany, will assist in the development of this regional partnership.