SUDV is a Select agent, World Health Organization Risk Group 4 Pathogen (requiring Biosafety Level 4-equivalent containment), National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Category A Priority Pathogen, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A Bioterrorism Agent, and listed as a Biological Agent for Export Control by the Australia Group.

[citation needed] The first known outbreak of EVD occurred due to Sudan virus in South Sudan between June and November 1976, infecting 284 people and killing 151, with the first identifiable case on 27 June 1976.

EVD due to SUDV infection cannot be differentiated from EVD caused by other ebolaviruses by clinical observation alone, which is why the clinical presentation and pathology of infections by all ebolaviruses is presented together on a separate page.

[14] In the past, SUDV has caused the following EVD outbreaks:[15][16][additional citation(s) needed] As of 2022, there are six experimental vaccines but only three have advanced to the stage where human clinical trials have begun.

[18] As the Public Health Agency of Canada developed a candidate RVSV vaccine for Sudan ebolavirus.

[19] As of 2021 GeoVax was developing MVA-SUDV-VLP, which is a modified vaccinia Ankara virus producing Sudan virus-like particles; early data from their research showed the GeoVax vaccine candidate to be 100% effective at preventing death from the Sudan ebolavirus in animals.

[20] An adenovirus based vaccine previously licensed by GSK was donated to and further developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in partnership with the Vaccine Research Center at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; as of October 2022, it will be offered to contacts of known SDV cases in the 2022 Uganda Ebola outbreak as part of a clinical trial.