Two Ebola drugs have shown a 90% success rate in treating the disease.

A small child receives an Ebola vaccine. BBC/Reuters.

A clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo has shown two drugs have a 90% effectiveness rate in curing the Ebola virus disease. BBC. Four drugs were tested and two of them, REGN-EB3 and mAb114, were found effective. The other two drugs, ZMapp and Remdesivir, will be dropped as they were not found to be effective. The drugs use antibodies developed from survivors of Ebola. Both drugs were more effective in early cases of the infection and lost effectiveness as the disease advanced. The drugs will be immediately used to treat people who are infected with the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

My Comment:

Good news from the battle against Ebola. In addition to a vaccine that can prevent infection, we now have two drugs that can save lives. Considering before the West African outbreak Ebola was almost a death sentence, this is a huge development. Changing the outcome from a 90% death rate to a 10% death rate is a major turnaround. 

In theory the new drugs and the vaccine should be able to stop any new outbreaks. The treatments can keep people alive and the vaccine can keep new infections from happening. It's also a boon for the doctors as they have less to fear in case they get exposed. 

However, this new development might not help the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That outbreak has continued to spread even after the development of a vaccine that prevents the virus. I don't think that a new treatment plan will help that much either. 

Why? Because treatment isn't the problem in Congo. It's the instability and the general distrust of doctors that is causing the problem. A treatment and a vaccine is all well and good but it's pointless if nobody can get to the outbreak areas due to roving Islamist militias and attacks on doctors. 

Still, even with the instability this new treatment option will likely make it a lot more difficult for the disease to spread outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And if it does somehow do so, more advanced and stable countries will be much more prepared to deal with the Ebola virus. Hopefully it will slow and eventually turn back the progress of the disease in Congo and eventually stop the current outbreak.