Monkeys may have conceal the final positive cure to ebola virus. 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 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.
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