American Scientists Successfully Develop Treatment for Ebola Infections

A sequence specific short strand of RNA was designed to target the virus, rendering it harmless. It can be quickly modified to suit different viral strains.

A team of researchers has successfully developed a treatment that has resulted effective against a specific strain of the Ebola virus.

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp., demonstrated that the treatment is the first to be shown effective against the new Makona outbreak strain of Ebola in animals that were infected with the virus and exhibited symptoms of the disease.

Ebola Virus Disease | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Cause Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment
Ebola is caused by a virus via direct contact with body fluids or infected blood. Scientists have identified five types of Ebola or Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus.

The treatment uses a sequence specific short strand of RNA, known as siRNA, designed to target and interfere with the Ebola virus, rendering it harmless. One of the advantages of this approach is the ability to quickly modify it to different viral strains.

Researcher Thomas Geisbert said that they quickly adapted their candidate treatment to target the Makona outbreak strain of Ebola virus and they were able to protect all of their nonhuman primates against a lethal Makona Ebola infection when treatment began three days following infection. At this point, those infected showed clinical signs of disease and had detectable levels of virus in their blood.

Although all infected animals showed evidence of advanced disease, those receiving treatment had milder symptoms and recovered fully. The untreated controls succumbed to the disease on days eight and nine, which is similar to that reported in the field after patients begin showing symptoms of Ebola.

World Support for Ebola: US$35 Million Funding from King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia
Zaire ebolavirus is commonly known as Ebola. It was previously known as ebola haemorrhagic fever and is a deadly human illness.

This treatment also protected against liver and kidney dysfunction and blood disorders that occur during an Ebola infection. These results indicate that the treatment may confer protective benefits that go beyond improving survival rates and effective control of virus levels in the body.

The Tekmira siRNA-based therapeutic is now being evaluated in Ebola-infected patients in Sierra Leone.

Liberia Reports First Ebola Infection After a Month
After suffering over 4,000 deaths due to the deadly virus, Liberia was supposed to be declared Ebola-free by mid-April. A new case is a major setback.

The study appears in the Nature Journal.

Source-Medindia

Govts Must Launch Health Campaigns on a Massive Scale to Create Awareness on Epidemics
Nobody can predict the next big epidemic but we can create better healthcare facilities so that accessibility to treatment is faster, says a US-based expert.