Bridgette Jeanne Billioux, M.D.

In general, Dr. Billioux research interests focus on how infectious agents, such as viruses, fungi, bacteria, and parasites, affect the nervous system.  As the head of the Program in International Neuroinfectious Diseases, she has been involved in several international clinical research projects.  Most notably, she runs the Neurology Substudy of the PREVAIL III Natural History of Ebola study, a longitudinal cohort study following Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors and their close contacts.  Dr. Billioux has found that many EVD survivors suffer from neurological sequelae, including headaches, memory loss, depressive symptoms, abnormal neurological findings, and rarely seizures; however, over time, these survivors improve and are able to go back to a normal life. She is currently working on an imaging project that will involve CT scanning of Ebola survivors and their close contacts to better understand imaging changes associated with EVD. She is also involved in other international studies in association with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, including a randomized control trial of therapeutics for Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among other projects.

At the NIH Clinical Center, Dr. Billioux works with a number of collaborators across different institutes to better understand and characterize several different neuroinfectious and neuroimmunologic diseases.  In particular, Dr. Billioux sees patients with HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis in conjunction with Dr. Steven Jacobson’s lab; progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy and multiple sclerosis patients with the Neuroimmunology Clinic; and patients with cryptococcal meningitis and severe or unusual herpetic infections (including Mollaret meningitis) in collaboration with colleagues in NIAID.  She is also interested in how emerging infections affect the CNS, such as Jamestown Canyon Virus, Ebola Virus Disease, Zika virus, etc, and sees these patients under the Neuroinflammatory protocol.