New Experimental Treatments For Ebola Viewed As Game Changer In Reducing Mortality
According to researchers, the first clearly effective treatments for Ebola, a deadly disease that continues its reach in central Africa, have been identified.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the first example that a therapeutic intervention can have a dramatic effect on decreasing the mortality of the Ebola virus disease,鈥 Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, a Congolese doctor who has spent his career researching Ebola treatments and oversaw the trial on the ground, said in a conference call Monday that he 鈥渃ould not have imagined鈥 that such a day would come. (Parker, 8/12)
Of the聽2,831 people who have been infected with Ebola in eastern Congo since Aug. 1, 2018, two-thirds鈥攐r 1,888鈥攈ave died, according to the World Health Organization. But patients who received a cocktail of antibodies developed by U.S. drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. only faced a 29% mortality rate, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID. (Steinhauser, 8/12)
In a development that transforms the fight against Ebola, two experimental treatments are working so well that they will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, scientists announced on Monday. The antibody-based treatments are quite powerful 鈥 鈥淣ow we can say that 90 percent can come out of treatment cured,鈥 one scientist said 鈥 that they raise hopes that the disastrous epidemic in eastern Congo can soon be stopped and future outbreaks more easily contained. (McNeil Jr., 8/12)
Researchers say they have identified the first clearly effective treatments for Ebola, a deadly disease that continues to spread in central Africa. The experimental drugs will be made widely available in the centers that have already treated thousands of patients. This achievement is particularly notable given the extraordinary circumstances: Scientists in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been running a study in the midst of a deadly epidemic and in the face of armed assaults on doctors. (Harris, 8/12)