An Experimental Drug Against The Ebola Virus [saved The Lives Of Two Americans]

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 23:16

An experimental drug against the Ebola virus [saved the lives of two Americans]

The health of two American paramedics infected with the Ebola virus improved after an injection of experimental serum. According to the latest data, 887 people have already died from Ebola in West Africa, in connection with which a meeting of the WHO emergency committee will take place tomorrow, at which it will be decided whether the spread of the virus poses a threat of international importance.

Experimental serum was delivered to Liberia to treat Ebola-infected doctors. Illustration from the site eniyatamil.com /

According to CNN, the health of two American health workers who contracted the Ebola virus improved after an injection of an experimental serum that has not yet passed clinical trials. According to the latest data, since March this year, more than 1.6 thousand cases of infection with this virus have been recorded in West Africa, 887 of which have been fatal. On this occasion, a meeting of the WHO emergency committee will be held tomorrow, at which it will be decided whether the spread of the Ebola virus poses a threat of international importance.

Two American physicians, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who recently contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia, received doses of an experimental drug, ZMapp, created by the San Diego-based biotech company Mapp Biopharmaceutical. This drug has only been studied in a few monkeys and has not yet undergone clinical trials to confirm its safety and effectiveness.

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Studies have shown that four monkeys infected with the Ebola virus survived receiving the drug within 24 hours of infection. Two of the four monkeys who received the drug within 48 hours also survived, and another monkey infected with the virus, which was not injected with the experimental serum, died five days after infection. The condition of the doctors was critical, so they gave their consent to treatment with a drug not yet tested in humans, after which their health began to recover. They are currently under medical supervision in the isolation ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, a patient presented with Ebola symptoms (usually accompanied by fever, vomiting and diarrhea, and subsequently internal bleeding) was admitted to the Mount Sinai Clinic in Manhattan. The man, who recently returned from West Africa, went to the hospital himself and asked to have his blood tested for the virus. The day before, the patient had already been placed in an isolated box, and blood samples were sent to the laboratory.

Due to the dire epidemiological situation in West Africa, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is accelerating the testing of several experimental Ebola vaccines. They are expected to begin clinical trials this fall. Meanwhile, the World Bank announced that it will provide $ 200 million to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to modernize their health systems.