Posted 06.14.2012 at 3:30 pm
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Ebola Virus
Wikimedia Commons
The Ebola virus—one of the world's deadliest diseases—has a kill rate of 90 percent. That's largely because the best current treatment must be applied within one hour of infection. Which is an almost impossibly brief window, considering symptoms may take anywhere from two to 21 days to appear in humans. But a new treatment has shown success in curing the disease when administered 24 hours or more after infection—at least when tested in monkeys.
Researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada gave a group of monkeys the deadliest strain of Ebola, the Zaire virus, and treated four of them with an antibody cocktail 24 hours later. All four survived. Out of another group of four monkeys treated 48 hours after infection, two did. A monkey infected with the virus but untreated lived for five days after being infected.
The cocktail improves on other treatments by using antibodies that target different parts of a protein on the virus; shutting down that protein makes it more difficult for Ebola to infect cells in the body. That sounds promising, even if it's not a full-on miracle cure. If symptoms have already shown up, it might still be too late for treatment, but it could at least extend the window considerably. A phase I clinical trial is set to begin on humans in late 2014. Not that they'll be infecting anyone; the treatment will be used on uninfected people to test the antibodies' safety in the human body.
[Nature]
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Rock n roll
Tom Clancy's ebola story in Executive Orders doesnt scare me anymore!
Wait a minute!
"The Ebola virus—one of the world's deadliest diseases—has a kill rate of 90 percent. That's largely because the best current treatment must be applied within one hour of infection. Which is an almost impossibly brief window," considering symptoms may take anywhere from two to 21 days to appear in humans.
And 21 days makes this whooper of a disease somehow better but has to be applied within 24 hours. Get a grip!
See it takes 21 days to appear in a human but this so called non cure even in a monkey has to given in less than 24 hours of infection that no symptoms have shown up yet.'
What a gas! 24 hours is still a impossibly window of time for a 21 day to show reaction. Do some math folks, two days is 48 hours and you,re still screwed. DUH! And a small sucess rate in a freaking screwball alloted time line "lab monkey" is not anything to brag about. Creep me! Thats like saying I layed down on some tracks and got ran over but almost didn,t.
You,re still just as dead!
jimcool,
This is similar to an invisible bomb. Once is explodes, we know the location of the bomb and if we go back when the bomb is being installed, we could defuse the bomb....
This is one of those moments, I like to call it 'alien math' and I just do not get the article too.
I didn't comment earlier, because I was hoping someone could explain it better.
Robot you,re a flipping riot. I like you. I hardly ever laugh at anyone elses humor with the exception of Sandford and Son. You put it so well and said.
In all fairness I think it was an artical about a progress on this deadly illness only. I would might brag to my coleages at work about such a find but it would be way too soon to make a public statement over such babble.