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Experimental Ebola drug shelved; study explores virus clearance

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CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE POLICY AND RESEARCH by Lisa Schnirring     July 20, 2015

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals  announced that it has suspended development of TKM-Ebola, a drug cocktail that showed disappointing human trial results in West Africa, as a convalescent plasma trial at a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) facility in Guinea proceeded with no ill effects in patients so far...

In suspending TKM-Ebola development, the company said that a joint reevaluation of its contract with the US Department of Defense is under way.

In another development, MSF said a convalescent serum trial at its facility in Nongo, Guinea, has enrolled 101 people over the last few months, with no ill effects reported so far, according to a Jul 17 update on the outbreak. Patients at the Nongo treatment unit have the option to receive plasma donated by Ebola survivors....

Meanwhile, detailed testing at a Swiss hospital on a 43-year-old doctor infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone found that viral decay occurred in two phases, once starting 72 hours after symptom onset before any antiviral interventions, with acceleration in viral load decay after ZMAb infusion and oral favipiravir treatments began..

Read complete article.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/07/experimental-ebola-drug-shelved-study-explores-virus-clearance

See MSF Press release,  references to Guinea.
http://www.msf.org/article/ebola-west-africa-%E2%80%9Cwe-must-finish-job%E2%80%9D

See Lancet article:

Clinical features and viral kinetics in a rapidly cured patient with Ebola virus disease: a case report

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2815%2900229-7/fulltext

 

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