Mbala-Kingebeni P, et al. - For transmission analysis and characterization in rapid outbreak responses, real-time information about pathogen genomes is critical, so researchers investigated the real-time generation of genomic information at the start of the 2018 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu Province in response to the recently established genomic capacity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The genomic information revealed differences in the EVD outbreak in the North Kivu and Ituri Provinces and the 2018 EVD outbreak in Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For the deployment of the rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein vaccine, available therapeutics and sequence-based diagnostic assays, actionable information in real-time was provided by the first two coding-complete genomes. Deployment of monoclonal antibody therapeutics (mAb114 and ZMapp) should be efficacious against the circulating Ebola virus variant based on the mutations identified in the Ebola virus surface glycoprotein (GP12) observed in all 48 genomes. In routine EVD outbreak response procedures, they recommend including rapid Ebola virus genomic characterization to determine the effectiveness of medical countermeasures.