Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) currently presently have no approved cure and also no preventive vaccination. However there are
currently some therapies under investigation. Unfortunately the trails of these therapies are not being done in presently heavy burdened countries like
Liberia, Serrian Leone and Guinea.
1 Serum
therapy
- One of potential product is Zmapp. It was developed with U.S. military funding by a San Diego company, using antibodies harvested from lab animals injected with parts of the Ebola virus. It works by boosting immune system's efforts to fight the virus. It was recently used for US Doctor- Kent Brantly & Nancy Writebol who were both infected in Liberia while working for Samarita Purse. However the request by Nigeria Government to US government was refused.
- Infected patients are transfused with blood or plasma from patients who recently recovered from Ebola virus infection. This work based on premise that plasma from recovered patients contains life-saving antibodies. However results of such treatment have not been formally reported for human.
- Another compound – BCX4430 (RNA –dependent RNA polymerase inhibitor) reported in Nature journal 2014.It was proven successful in a non-human primate model(cynomolgus macaques) but no human trials reported yet.
Where are the risk of Human Ebola transmission?
HealthGuard
