Experimental ebola drug ZMapp has cured all of
the infected monkeys it was tested on, lifting
hopes it could be used to fight West Africa's
deadliest ever outbreak.
Scientists reported the drug healed all 18
monkeys who were given a lethal dose of the
virus.
According to the study, published by the journal
Nature, the monkeys were treated with ZMapp
three to five days after they were infected and
when most were showing symptoms.
Even those suffering advanced symptoms like
rashes, liver dysfunction and haemorrhaging and
were just hours from death survived.
No other experimental ebola drug has ever shown
success in primates so long after infection, with
five days equal to between nine and 11 days after
infection in humans.
Three monkeys who were not offered the
treatment, produced by San Diago-based Mapp
Biopharmaceutical, died by day eight.
"The level of improvement was utterly beyond my
honest expectation," said one study leader, Gary
Kobinger of the Public Health Agency of Canada in
Winnipeg.
In a commentary published by Nature, virologist
Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas
Medical Branch, described the results as a
"monumental success."
It was the first time the drug was tested on
primates.
Although it is not known whether the success will
be replicated on people, who can take up to 21
days to show symptoms, Mapp has already begun
producing more of the drug ready for scientific
human testing.
The company has no more doses of ZMapp, which
is grown in tobacco plants and takes several
months to produce.
The final doses were given to seven people
infected with the virus in recent weeks.
Two American aid workers were among five people
who survived after being given the drug.
Their physicians do not know whether it was
instrumental in their recovery as roughly half of
those infected during West Africa's recent
outbreak have recovered naturally.
A Liberian doctor infected with the virus died
this week despite being given the drug, as did a
Spanish priest.
It comes after researchers revealed the outbreak
may have started at a funeral in Sierra Leone.
According to the World Health Organisation
(WHO), 1,552 people of 3,069 confirmed ebola
cases have died.
WHO says there could be as many as 20,000 cases
before the virus is brought under control.
There is no approved vaccine or treatment beyond
keeping patients hydrated and nourished.
The virus spread to a fifth African country on
Friday, with Senegal reporting that a university
student who had travelled from Guinea was being
treated.
Source: Sky News
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