UK Health Radio Medical News Update – On the Hour - Ebola Update

UK Health Radio Medical News Update – On the Hour

Ebola Update

The BBC have reported that clinical trial data on the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp shows that it is 100% effective in studies using monkeys even on those in the later stages of the infection. Trials on the 18 monkeys infected with Ebola showed 100% survival in the animals.

The researchers who published the results of their study in the journal Nature said it was a "very important step forward".

However, the limited supplies available will not help the 20,000 people predicted to have been infected during the outbreak in West Africa.  Additionally, two out of seven people who were given the drug later died from the disease.

ZMapp has been dubbed the "secret serum" because it is still in the experimental stages of development with, currently, no public data on effectiveness.

Doctors are using it as there is no cure for Ebola otherwise.  The infection has killed more than 1,500 people since it started in Guinea.

The researchers have been investigating different combinations of antibodies, a part of the immune system that binds to viruses, as a therapy. ZMapp is the latest cocktail and contains three antibodies.

William Pooley, from the UK, has been given the ZMapp drug after he returned from Sierra Leone with the infection. Scientists say this is very significant as previous therapies worked only if they were given before symptoms even appeared.

However, scientists are always cautious when interpreting the implications for humans from animal data.  A Liberian doctor, one of three people being given the drug in the country, and a Spanish priest have both died from the infection despite having been treated with ZMapp.

The course of the infection is slower in humans than in the macaque monkeys it has been tested on.  It has been cautiously estimated that ZMapp may be effective as late as nine or even 11 days after infection.

The group wants to start clinical trials in people to truly assess the effectiveness of the drug.

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio Medical News Update – On the Hour

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