18 monkeys treated with ZMapp
survived after becoming ill with
Ebola; three died without it.
Monkeys infected with the Ebola
virus survived after being treated
with an experimental drug in a study
that suggests the drug may be
effective even after severe symptoms
are present.
Monkeys were given three doses of
the antibody-based treatment
ZMapp starting three to five days
after being infected with a lethal
dose of Ebola. All 18 monkeys
treated with ZMapp survived, while
three that were not given the
medicine died, according to the
results published in the journal
Nature .
"It is a really, really important
study" as it is the longest
researchers have waited after
infecting monkeys with Ebola to
protect all of them with a drug, said
Thomas Geisbert, a virologist at the
University of Texas who was not
involved in the research.
Some Ebola patients have been
treated with ZMapp, though the
maker of the experimental vaccine,
Mapp Biopharmaceutical, said its
supply was exhausted. Three health-
care workers in Liberia have also
been treated with the drug. Liberian
officials have confirmed that one of
them died.\
People celebrate in a street outside
of West Point slum in Monrovia,
Liberia. However, the lifting of a
barricade on the area does not mean
there are no Ebola cases there.
Photo: AP
People celebrate in a street outside
of West Point slum in Monrovia,
Liberia. However, the lifting of a
barricade on the area does not mean
there are no Ebola cases there.
Photo: AP
The current outbreak had made more
than 3,000 people ill and killed
1,552 as of last Tuesday in Liberia,
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria,
putting it on a pace to cause more
deaths than all previous Ebola
outbreaks combined, and prompting
the World Health Organisation to
declare it a global health
emergency.
More than 20,000 people may be
infected with Ebola before the
outbreak in West Africa was
controlled, the WHO said.
A woman passes a pharmacy as it
open for the first time in West Point,
which has been closed in by Liberian
security forces to contain the spread
of Ebola. Photo: AP
A woman passes a pharmacy as it
open for the first time in West Point,
which has been closed in by Liberian
security forces to contain the spread
of Ebola. Photo: AP
The Mapp drug is one of several
vaccines and drugs being developed.
GlaxoSmithKline and the US National
Institutes of Health are planning to
start human trials of an Ebola
vaccine as soon as this week. Inserm,
the French national health institute,
is talking with Guinea health
authorities about human trials of
drugs from Fujifilm Holdings and
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.
While previous research has shown
various treatments can protect
monkeys against Ebola, in most of
the studies the animals were treated
with the drugs shortly after exposure
to the virus, before bad symptoms
were present, Geisbert said. In the
new study, however, most of the
animals had fevers, abnormal blood
cell counts, or other signs of disease
by the time they were given ZMapp.
Geisbert, who wrote a commentary
accompanying the study in Nature ,
said the next step would be to
perform a safety trial of the medicine
in humans.
www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1582023/africas-demand-ebola-drug-grows-it-wipes-out-virus-monkey-lab-test

Yeah,if it can heal monkeys it'll heal Africans, right?

nedu2000: Yeah,if it can heal monkeys it'll heal Africans, right?

Not the point, but that was hilarious!

BTW humans and pigs have same anatomy. Why don't they ever use pigs in these tests? Probably because pigs have an insanely high immune system.

nedu2000: Yeah,if it can heal monkeys it'll heal Africans, right?

Hahahaha!

Zmapp is surely the cure for EVD.

chibecanglobal: Zmapp is surely the cure for EVD.

Not just Zmapp there are 2 others that have done similar. Although Zmapp was horridly used on humans initially, I am sure TKM is the only one currently in human trial phase.