Ebola clinical trials to start next month
Clinical trials to try to find an effective treatment for Ebola patients are to start next month, with initial results available by February 2015.
The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres, which has been helping lead the fight against the virus, says three of its treatment centres will host three separate research projects.
One trial involves using the blood of recovered Ebola patients to treat sick people in the Guinean capital Conakry. Two antiviral drugs will be trialled in Guinea and at another unconfirmed location.
“This is an unprecedented international partnership which represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment,” said MSF spokeswoman Dr Annick Antierens.
The World Health Organization announced in September that experimental treatments and vaccines for Ebola should be fast-tracked.
Two experimental vaccines, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Public Health Agency of Canada, have already been fast-tracked into safety trials.
The GSK vaccine is being tested in Mali, the UK and the US. Research on the Canadian vaccine is also under way in the US.
The Ebola outbreak is thought to have infected more than 14,000 people, almost all of them in West Africa. The death toll now stands at 5,160.
Credit: BBC