Researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine reported that the experimental drug, ZMapp, can be an effective treatment against the Ebola virus after 100 percent of the monkeys in their experiment showed improvement.
Gary P. Kobinger, senior author of the study from the Public Health Agency of Canada, and his colleagues tested ZMapp on 18 monkeys that were infected wiith the Ebola virus. The experimental drug was administered to the monkeys five days after they were exposed to the deadly virus. The subjects displayed similar symptoms of the disease such as rashes, bleeding, and liver toxicity, which were observed in Ebola patients.
This research provided the best results, and scientists expect that the drug will replicate the same results to humans infected with the Ebola virus.
Dr. Kartik Chandran, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who is not part of the study, commented that ZMapp might be the cure that scientists are searching for.
"To actually be able to reverse all those symptoms and signs and bring them back to baseline, I think that is pretty astounding," Dr. Chandran told the New York Times. "If you are going to give somebody something during this outbreak, this would be it."
However, the main challenge identified with ZMapp was the insufficient supply of the drug. Mapp Biopharmaceutical, the company that developed and manufactured the product, stated that it may take a few months before they can produce additional supplies.
Earlier this month, about 10 to 12 doses of ZMapp were transported to Liberia. With so few doses available to them, Liberian health authorities were left to decide who among the 1,848 known Ebola patients would receive the treatment. The doses were given to the charity aid workers.
ZMapp was also administered to the American aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who both recovered and were discharged from the hospital last week. A Liberian doctor and a Spanish priest both died, even though they were given the experimental drug, Reuters reported
Further details of study were published in the Aug. 30 issue of Nature.
