Cure for Ebola may have been found

Two American doctors working in missions on the African continent and who were infected with the Ebola virus have been saved with a "miracle treatment". This "secret weapon" had never been tested on humans only in monkeys. However, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), u.s. regulatory authority, will have opened an exception under a mandate authorising the use of untested medicines.

CNN and the Atlantic report the story. Kent Brantly is doctor and saw hundreds of people already dying of the Ebola virus. As such, there was a cold in her diagnostic foresight made last week: "I'm going to die".

The condition of this American doctor was serious and his fate most likely would have been death, as did the hundreds of Africans. However, last Saturday, American televisions showed the Brantly's return to New York, so that he could receive a better service. What you saw was the doctor to return to American soil and to walk only with a minimum aid, since the ambulance to the isolation unit at Emory University Hospital.

"One of the doctors said it was a miracle," said Sanjay Gupta, who is a doctor at the hospital of Emory and special correspondent from CNN for medical affairs. "It's not a term that doctors like to use lightly", he stressed, citing the Atlantic.

Once the Ebola virus is a disease without a cure and fatal in 90% of cases, the case of Kent Brantley is intriguing. On reporting for CNN, Sanjay Gupta has indicated that it will have been a secret serum saved Brantley and Nancy Writebol, another American doctor infected with the virus.

According to the account of Gupta, three bottles of a secret experimental serum stored at freezing temperatures, were sent into Liberia, where were the doctors, in the last week, in a last attempt to save them.

Brantly was working for the Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse as medical director of Ebola Consolidation Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia. The Group has confirmed that the doctor received secret treatment before leaving the country and returning to the United States.

Brantly is almost fully recovered thanks to secret treatment. Nancy Writebol recovery already was not so amazing, but enough to also be able to be transported to the United States.

The secret serum

The secret serum used is known for zMapp and is produced by Mapp Biopharmaceutical. However, the medicine had not yet been tested in humans, only in monkeys, and as such had not yet been approved by the FDA. However, under a rule that allows the use of medicinal products not tested on humans only in exceptional situations, the medication may be administered to two doctors infected with the Ebola virus.

The secret medicine it is a monoclonal antibody. The administration of such antibodies is becoming increasingly common and time has shown that it is an effective solution. This type of antibody is produced as follows: Guinea Pigs are exposed to a virus and your immune system develops antibodies against the virus. Subsequently, the lymphocytes are isolated in the laboratory and multiplied in cell cultures. In the case of zMapp were separated three cell lines that produce specific antibodies effective against Ebola. The antibodies are then added to a solution. According to the pharmacist who developed the medicine, it is possible to produce these antibodies in tobacco plants, which speeds up the process the process of production, since the cell cultures are slower.

In spite of the application of zMapp have been a success, yet little is known about their effect on humans. In tests conducted with animals, the Mapp Biopharmaceutical administered the medicine to eight monkeys with Ebola virus that survived. All were given the medicine until 48 hours after they have been infected. A monkey that has been treated with the serum after 48 hours did not survive. This means that little is known about the safety and effectiveness of this treatment â€" and that extreme circumstances like this, the FDA would not have allowed their application. Gupta suspects that the FDA authorized the use of the zMapp under the compassionate use exemption.

The current outbreak of Ebola virus is the biggest in the history of the disease, both in terms of the number of infected as related deaths â€" approximately 729 since the end of 2013.

Foto: EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection / Creative Commons

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