Latest Ebola News: How far are we from a promising Ebola treatment?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) now declares the Ebola outbreak as an international health emergency. As of August 4, 2014 the virus has reportedly killed 932 and infected a total of 1711 individuals together in West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

While the head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is quite sure that US will not suffer a major outbreak of Ebola, the global attention is now diverted to the new experimental drug called ZMapp that is developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. in San-Diego and manufactured by Owensboro-based Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP). We discuss in the first place whether the experimental drugs like ZMapp should be used and what the latest developments in Ebola treatment are so far.

According to D. Dhairyasheel Savant from the Asian Institute of Oncology, since there's no documented cure for Ebola use of experimental drugs is the only ray of hope for the sufferers. Also, it has a high fatality rate, so in any case use of experimental drug should not be a problem.

Here are some facts about the experimental drug ZMapp shared by CDC that you should know

The drug is still experimental: As per the CDC, the drug is still in its experimental stages and it's too early to confirm the effectiveness of the drug in humans.

The positive results were experimental: The treatment that shown positive results in one of the Americans who contracted the virus in Liberia was experimental and was arranged privately by Samaritan's Purse, the private humanitarian organization.

The drug is not gone through clinical trials: The manufactures are yet to test safety and efficacy of the drug inhumans with organized clinical trials.

Latest research in Ebola treatment

Apart from Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., other companies that are exploring newer compounds for Ebola include Tekmira and Biocryst Pharmaceuticals. The companies are being funded by the Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

The Department of Defense is also working towards the development of Ebola vaccine with a company called Newlink.

The National Institute of health (NIH) is currently supporting BioCryst to develop an antiviral drug for Ebola treatment. The drug is expected to enter Phase 1 trials later this year.

So, finding effective Ebola drugs or therapies may take a few months to a year. Until then, it's important to understand that supportive therapy remains the standard treatment for Ebola.

With inputs from IANS

Photo source: Getty images

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