Drugs and therapies are on the way as Doctors without Borders (French: Médecins Sans Frontières), in partnership with other international agencies and organizations, announced on Thursday, November 13, they are set to begin clinical trials on blood therapy and drugs in an effort to control Ebola.
According to Annick Antierens, who is going to act as a coordinator for all these trials, these treatments may begin as early as December with results expected to come out by February 2015.
So far, there are two confirmed trials in Guinea. The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) will test favipiravir in Gueckedou while Tropical Medicine (ITM) will measure the effectiveness of blood and plasma therapy in Conakry.
Doctors without Borders is considering another drug called brincidofovir, which has already worked against other types of viruses. If this pushes through, the trial is going to be in Monrovia, Liberia's capital.
Prior to these, a few experimental drugs such as ZMapp had been given to some Ebola patients, including the first two U.S. health workers, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, brought back to the country for a more comprehensive treatment.
Blood and plasma therapy, on the other hand, is an old practice in medicine. It is based on the idea that those who survived the Ebola virus have already developed the antibodies to fight it, making them already immune to the strain. Brantly and Writebol had contributed their blood plasma to other U.S. patients previously diagnosed with Ebola.
Although the team remains hopeful and believes these therapies are promising, it's still possible they wouldn't work at all. One of the ways to measure its success is if the test subjects, who should personally allow themselves to participate in the trial, are able to survive for at least two weeks after the drug or the therapy has been given.
The World Health Organization reported on Wednesday, November 12, more than 5,000 had already died because of the Ebola outbreak while the number of cases rose to 14,000. While Guinea and Liberia seemed to experience a decline, Sierra Leone had more than 400 new cases last week. Mali also had 4 confirmed deaths and cases.
Aside from the challenge of containing the infection, the health workers are also facing lack of manpower and operational treatment units.