Japanese flu supplement helps against Ebola

Japanese flu supplement helps against Ebola

07/12/2014

A Cuban doctor who has been infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone has recovered. For over two weeks he had been treated with drugs in Geneva. On the one hand with ZMab from Canada and on the other hand with the influenza drug Favipiravir from Japan.

Cuban doctor completely recovered
43-year-old Cuban doctor Felix Baez, who has been infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, has recovered. He was one of a total of 256 Cuban doctors and nurses who came to West Africa to care for Ebola patients. After the infection with the dangerous disease Baez had been brought to Geneva at the request of the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the information, he has now been released from Geneva University Hospital as a fully recovered and has already left Switzerland and has returned to his family.

Experimental treatment in Geneva
The patient had received treatment with the experimental drug ZMab for the infectious disease developed in Canada during his 16-day hospital stay. It is a precursor to the drug ZMapp, which has been used to treat multiple Ebola patients in the United States. „Already two days after the start of the treatment he was feeling much better“, said the Geneva doctor Jacques-André Romand, according to media reports. This drug was also sent to Rome, where an Italian doctor fights with the dangerous virus.

Patient received additional Japanese flu remedy
As a spokeswoman for the Geneva clinic added, Baez but not only ZMab received, but also the not yet tested flu drug favipiravir, which has been developed by the Japanese company Fujifilm. This substance has been put on the list of potential Ebola medications by WHO. The Cuban Baez was the first Ebola case in Switzerland. Romand explained: „The population of Geneva was never exposed to any risk of transmission of the disease.“

Still no sure remedy
Despite the fact that despite intensive research, there is still no safe remedy or vaccine against the disease, physicians are repeatedly confronted with testing experimental drugs. As a rule, however, the doctors usually have no choice but to relieve typical Ebola symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting as well as internal and external haemorrhages. So also in Sierra Leone where Baez had infected during his relief mission.

Ebola continues to spread
The country is particularly hard hit by the current epidemic. For example, 108 of the 138 doctors and carers who infected Ebola in Sierra Leone died. According to the WHO, this death rate is significantly higher than among medical staff in the neighboring countries of Guinea and Liberia, also affected by Ebola. Meanwhile Ebola continues to spread in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three most affected countries. As the WHO announced on Friday evening, the death toll has now risen to 6,187, 74 more deaths than had been reported the day before.

Experts assume a high number of unreported cases
According to the WHO, a total of 17,517 Ebola infections have been recorded in the three West African countries, 261 more than a day before. It is said that the reporting data of the three countries are always two to three days old. However, the experts of the WHO assume that there is a high number of unreported cases of the infected and fatalities. However, the statistics sometimes include cases of infection and death in which there is an urgent suspicion of Ebola, but there is no clear evidence. This could possibly change in the future by a portable laboratory that can detect the viral infection in blood and saliva within fifteen minutes. The rapid test will be tested in Guinea. (Ad)