Health
New Ebola Drug Clears Virus from Monkeys
This undated photo made available by the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, shows the Ebola virus viewed through an electron microscope. (AP Photo/Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine)
(Irish Times) – An experimental Ebola drug cured three monkeys intentionally infected with the virus, according to a study published in Nature magazine.
The development marks the first such success against the strain of Ebola that killed up to 10,000 people in West Africa’s 2014-2015 outbreak.
Although other experimental treatments appeared to help Ebola patients last year, especially in the United States, those one-time uses cannot prove efficacy against the “Makona” strain, since patients’ recovery might be due to other causes.
Similarly, drugs, including Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s ZMapp, cured monkeys in lab experiments, but in a strain of Ebola different from that responsible for the current outbreak, the worst ever recorded.
