virus, which is raging in five West African nations. The
experimental Ebola drug ZMapp cured all 18 of the lab
monkeys infected with the virus, including those suffering
the fever and haemorrhaging characteristic of the disease
and just hours from death, scientists have said. Even
monkeys not treated until five days after infection survived,
the scientists, who published their data in the journal
Nature on Friday, said. No other experimental Ebola therapy
has ever shown success in primates when given that long
after infection; the five days is analogous to nine to 11
days after infection in people. Although two American aid
workers who contracted Ebola in the West Afrucan nation of
Liberia were cured after receiving ZMapp, their physicians
do not know if the drug helped. A Liberian doctor with the
disease died this week despite being given the drug, as did
a Spanish priest. ZMapp, produced by San Diego-based
Mapp Biopharmaceutical, has never been scientifically
tested in people, and the current study was the first in
primates. The success is therefore a "monumental
achievement," virologist Thomas Geisbert of the University
of Texas Medical Branch wrote in a commentary on the
paper, published online in Nature. There are no approved
Ebola vaccines or treatments, but human safety trials will
begin next week on a vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline Plc
and this autumn on one from NewLink Genetics Corp. The
Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed 1,552 people out of
3,069 confirmed cases, the World Health Organisation said.
The agency said the disease was on pace to infect 20,000
people. Neither governments nor private medical groups
have been able to contain the outbreak, which WHO said
will almost certainly continue into 2015. Optimal mix
ZMapp is a mix of three antibodies that bind to proteins on
Ebola viruses and trigger the immune system to destroy
them. ZMapp had previously developed two different
cocktails of antibodies, but they protected only 43 percent
of monkeys when given as late as five days after infection.
For the current study, scientists led by Gary Kobinger of the
Public Health Agency of Canada set out to identify the
optimal mix of antibodies from the earlier cocktails. His
team tested the antibodies in guinea pigs one at a time and
in various combinations, identifying the two best performers
last December. The two graduated to tests in 12 rhesus
monkeys. This spring the winner of that face-off, ZMapp,
was given to another 18 infected monkeys - three doses at
three-day intervals starting three, four or five days after
infection. All three untreated monkeys, in contrast, died of
Ebola by day eight. With ZMapp, even advanced symptoms
such as rashes, liver dysfunction and haemorrhaging
disappeared, a result Kobinger called "beyond my own
expectations" "This is an extremely encouraging result,"
said David Evans, professor of virology at England's
University of Warwick, who was not involved in the study.
The success suggests that ZMapp "offers the best option"
for treating Ebola, Kobinger's team wrote, and should be
tested for safety in people to enable its compassionate use
"as soon as possible".

source1:- http://zamanient..com.es/2014/08/good-news-ebola-drug-100-effective-in.html?m=1

source2:- http://m.aljazeera.com/
story/2014829182514685134 Source:-

What are we waiting for?