THE EBOLA VIRUS: Treatment and current stage of research for a cure for ebola

TREATMENT AND CURRENT STAGE OF RESEARCH

No known cure

The Ebola virus has no know cure. Till recent times not much attention was paid to the virus until it was isolated in Reston, U.S.A. The virus was till then a phenomenon of western Africa. The scenes in Kikwit, Zaire during the 1995 outbreak were pitiful, but this time, due to the interest of the United States and Europe, Doctors were available to treat the patients and observe. As it was, they could not do much – 245 of the 316 cases proved fatal. Fig 5 and Fig 6 show the Kikwit hospital and a graveyard for Ebola victims respectively.

A virus cannot be treated by antibiotics, unlike in the case of diseases like typhoid and malaria. The usual method of treating a viral infection is to inject a milder form of the virus, which has been cultivated in a vaccine, into the patient. This causes the body to respond with an immune reaction and produce specific antibodies against the invasion of this virus. These antibodies which are now activated, prevent further infection and help destroy virus particles already present. Usually these antibodies and this immune reaction last for a lifetime.

Current Stage of Research

There have been many instances of news or articles about a vaccine which has shown promising results, but no further news about any one of them has been available. As of March 2003, there has been no concrete news of a vaccine successful enough to begin human trials with.

No immune reactions have been observed in any human cases of the Ebola virus. There are several experimental vaccines being tested. The Journal of Virology reports in its April 2002 issue from a paper by Mangala Rao et al, a test using L(EV) (liposome-encapsulated virus) did not immunize or prevent death of monkeys, but did retard the onset of the virus (more…) and another research by Manish Gupta et al, using a polyclonal immune serum did not lead to immunity. (more…..)

Michigan medical center

A vaccine has been tested on Guinea Pigs in a laboratory in the Michigan Medical Centre that has shown favourable results with the test animals. However researches say that the vaccine is nowhere near ready for trial on human beings, and it is just the first known weakness of the Ebola virus.

National Institutes of Health: Virus Research Centre

A team of researchers led by scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a novel vaccine that prevents Ebola virus infection in monkeys. All four vaccinated monkeys were completely protected from a lethal dose of the virus. This study describes the first primate model of immune protection against Ebola virus, a model that may allow scientists to rationally design a vaccine that prevents this dreaded disease in humans. This was discovered in Nov of 2000, but no further news has been made available.

full story here

CDC

full story here

Research

Research on the Ebola virus has been taken up seriously. The virus, although having been most virulent in Western Africa, has global ramifications, given the fact that it is extremely contagious. The virus has also been isolated in the USA in primates in a laboratory and in Germany too, again in primates being used for medical tests. Developed countries have realised and recognised the threat that this virus poses, and they have reacted. However the progress has been slow, research for diseases like cancer and AIDS have gained the attention and funds.

· No specific treatment or vaccine exists for Ebola haemorrhagic fever.

· Severe cases require intensive supportive care, as patients are frequently dehydrated and in need of intravenous fluids.

· Experimental studies involving the use of hyper-immune sera on animals demonstrated no long-term protection against the disease after interruption of therapy.