Ebola drugs show ‘90% survival rate’ in test trial

Ebola may soon be a “preventable and treatable” disease after a trial of two drugs showed significantly improved survival rates, scientists have said.

Four drugs were trialed on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is a major outbreak of the virus.

More than 90 percent of infected people can survive if treated early with the most effective drugs, the research showed BBC said.

The drugs will now be used to treat all patients with the disease in DR Congo, according to health officials.

On Tuesday, two people cured of Ebola using the experimental drugs were released from a treatment center in Goma, eastern DR Congo, and reunited with their families.

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The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which co-sponsored the trial, said the results are “very good news” for the fight against Ebola.

The drugs, named REGN-EB3 and mAb114, work by attacking the Ebola virus with antibodies, neutralising its impact on human cells.

They are the “first drugs that, in a scientifically sound study, have clearly shown a significant diminution in mortality” for Ebola patients, said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID.

REGN-EB3 and mAb114 were developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola, which has killed more than 1,800 people in DR Congo in the past year.

Two other treatments, called ZMapp and Remdesivir, have been dropped from trials as they were found to be less effective.

The trial, conducted by an international research group coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), began in November last year.

Since then, four experimental drugs have been tested on around 700 patients, with the preliminary results from the first 499 now known.

Of the patients given the two more effective drugs, 29percent on REGN-EB3 and 34percent on mAb114 died, NIAID said.

In contrast, 49percent on ZMapp and 53percent on Remdesivir died in the study, the agency said.

The survival rate among patients with low levels of the virus in their blood was as high as 94percent when they were given REGN-EB3, and 89percent when on mAb114, the agency said.

The findings mean health authorities can “stress to people that more than 90percent of people survive” if they are treated early, said Sabue Mulangu, an infectious-disease researcher who worked on the trial.