KINSHASA, Aug 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ebola may soon be a “preventable and treatable” disease after a trial of two drugs showed significantly improved survival rates, scientists have said.
Four drugs were trialled on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is a major outbreak of the virus.
Two of those, named REGN-EB3 and mAb114, were more effective in treating the disease, the study found.
Two other treatments, called ZMapp and Remdesivir, have been dropped from trials as they were found to be less effective.
The drugs will now be used to treat Ebola patients in DR Congo, according to health officials.
The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which co-sponsored the trial, said the results are “very good news” for the fight against Ebola.
The drugs were developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola, which has killed more than 1,800 people in DR Congo in the past year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) co-ordinated the trial, which began in November last year.
The current outbreak in eastern DR Congo began in August last year and is the biggest of the 10 to hit the country since 1976, when the virus was first discovered.
But it is dwarfed by the West African epidemic of 2014-16, which affected 28,616 people mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. About 11,310 people died in what was the largest outbreak of the virus ever recorded. — NNN-AGENCIES