Ebola: two treatments that reduce the mortality of the disease highly recommended by the WHO

Two existing treatments significantly reduce mortality from Ebola virus disease, said the World Health Organization, which strongly recommends their administration to all people suffering from this hemorrhagic fever.

This is the first time the WHO has made treatment recommendations for Ebola. In its guidelines released Friday, the organization makes a “strong recommendation for treatment with mAb114 or REGN-EB3” in patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD).

It makes the same recommendation for “newborns with unconfirmed Ebola virus disease, aged 7 days or less, born to mothers with confirmed EVD.”

Treatments that can save between 230 and 400 lives out of 1,000

mAb114 is a monoclonal antibody marketed under the brand name Ebanga and REGN-EB3 is a cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies. These two treatments were approved in late 2020 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are already used to treat Ebola patients.

“Patients should receive the recommended neutralizing monoclonal antibodies as soon as possible after laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis,” the WHO said in a statement.

Studies have shown that both treatments significantly reduce Ebola-related mortality, WHO clinical team leader Janet Diaz told a news conference in Geneva. These treatments can save between 230 and 400 lives for every 1,000 people infected.

Vaccines are also used

“WHO stands ready to help countries, manufacturers and partners improve access to these treatments and support national and global efforts to make them more affordable,” the organization said.

In its guidelines, the WHO recommends, on the other hand, not to administer the ZMapp treatment (based on monoclonal antibodies) and the antiviral remdesivir.

The Ebola virus causes an often fatal disease. The 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest since the virus’s 1976 discovery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, then Zaire), killing more than 11,300 people.

More than a dozen epidemics have hit the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the deadliest of which killed 2,280 people in 2020. The virus is named after a river in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near which it broke out. the first epidemic. In addition to treatments, vaccines have been developed in recent years and are used to interrupt chains of transmission.