New Experimental Treatments For Ebola Viewed As Game Changer In Reducing Mortality
According to researchers, the first clearly effective treatments for Ebola, a deadly disease that continues its reach in central Africa, have been identified.
The Washington Post:
Ebola No Longer ‘Incurable,’ Scientists Say, After Discovery Of Two Highly Effective Drugs
“It’s the first example that a therapeutic intervention can have a dramatic effect on decreasing the mortality of the Ebola virus disease,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, a Congolese doctor who has spent his career researching Ebola treatments and oversaw the trial on the ground, said in a conference call Monday that he “could not have imagined” that such a day would come. (Parker, 8/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Two Experimental Ebola Drugs Reduce Mortality Rate
Of the 2,831 people who have been infected with Ebola in eastern Congo since Aug. 1, 2018, two-thirds—or 1,888—have died, according to the World Health Organization. But patients who received a cocktail of antibodies developed by U.S. drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. only faced a 29% mortality rate, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID. (Steinhauser, 8/12)
The New York Times:
A Cure For Ebola? Two New Treatments Prove Highly Effective In Congo
In a development that transforms the fight against Ebola, two experimental treatments are working so well that they will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, scientists announced on Monday. The antibody-based treatments are quite powerful — “Now we can say that 90 percent can come out of treatment cured,” one scientist said — that they raise hopes that the disastrous epidemic in eastern Congo can soon be stopped and future outbreaks more easily contained. (McNeil Jr., 8/12)
NPR:
2 Experimental Ebola Drugs Saved Lives In Congo Outbreak
Researchers say they have identified the first clearly effective treatments for Ebola, a deadly disease that continues to spread in central Africa. The experimental drugs will be made widely available in the centers that have already treated thousands of patients. This achievement is particularly notable given the extraordinary circumstances: Scientists in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been running a study in the midst of a deadly epidemic and in the face of armed assaults on doctors. (Harris, 8/12)
