Blood transfusion named as priority treatment for Ebola
Treating Ebola patients with the blood or purified serum of disease survivors should be made a priority in the fight against the ongoing outbreak in West Africa, an expert panel organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) said on 5 September.
The recommendation was the end of a two-day meeting to determine what therapies and experimental Ebola vaccine should be prioritized for clinical development accelerated. WHO estimates that about 3,700 people were infected in West Africa, and about 1,850 died.
Marie-Paule Kieny, Director General of Health Systems and Innovation WHO said that transfusion of whole blood or serum purified Ebola survivors therapy with the greatest potential to be implemented immediately implemented on a large scale in West Africa - in part because the average size of several epidemic potential donors available. The idea is to transfer antibodies to Ebola survivors who are still infected, but there is little information on the effectiveness of such treatment.
Priority, Kieny said, will ensure that donated blood is free of pathogens and other health workers remain safe for transfusion, where they would be exposed to the blood of patients with Ebola. Efforts to establish the infrastructure and training are in place he added.
There is no treatment or vaccine for Ebola has been approved for human use. But on August 11, a group of WHO experts said that it is ethically acceptable to test and use of experimental drugs in the home, provided that all efforts be made to collect scientific data on safety and efficacy. That panel said such measures are justified by the exceptional nature of this epidemic; proved difficult to implement public health measures that ended last Ebola.
Promising candidates
At the meeting of the WHO concluded that on September 5, the experts also recommended testing priority two potential vaccines: a vaccine of chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAd3) developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, and stomatitis virus recombinant () rVSV vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and authorized to genetic Ames, Iowa NewLink gallbladder. Both vaccines and rVSV ChAd3 conferred 100% protection against Ebola virus in animal studies.
The phase I trials of rVSV vaccine will begin this month in the United States, and vaccine trials begin ChAd3 also the United States, the UK, Gambia and Mali. It will test whether vaccines are safe, and if levels are elevated immune response that confers protection against Ebola virus in animals.
Eight hundred doses of rVSV are currently available, the WHO says, and about 15,000 doses of ChAd3 should be ready by the end of the year.
The group convened by WHO also chose to use drugs and testing priority, basing its decision on those who have shown good efficacy and safety in nonhuman primates. ZMapp selected treatments include a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies developed by biopharmaceutical Mapp in San Diego, California, which was shown last week to confer 100% protection in rhesus macaques. On September 2, the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States announced 42.3 million over 18 months for the development and manufacture of drugs.
Oyewale Tomori, a virologist at the University of Redeemer Redemption City, Nigeria, says that efforts to test and distribute new treatments and vaccines should not affect the need to establish baseline measures of public health in the areas of Ebola disaster or providing supportive care for patients. Few patients in endemic areas have access to quality care measures, such as intravenous rehydration, which can significantly reduce mortality. But he said on August 28 that sought $ 490 million to strengthen measures for basic public health and quality of care in treatment centers WHO Ebola.
No Comment to " Blood transfusion named as priority treatment for Ebola "