Convalescent blood serum trials, Liberia:The UN reports that some patients in the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia are now being treated with serum therapy. Its an experimental treatment made from the blood of people who have survived Ebola. This is the first clinical trial of such treatments, though they have been used ad hoc during this outbreak on a sporadic basis. Ebola survivors develop antibodies to the virus, and its hoped these will transfer to sick people and help lower their viral load. A separate, larger trial will begin in Conakry, Guinea later this month specifically to see if it boosts survival rates. Ebola spreads in social clusters and wont reach 1.4 million cases:In a study publishedinClinical Infectious Diseases, scientists said that Ebola mostly spreads within families, at hospitals and at funerals - more so than in general community interactions. Their work also showed that more cases are reported than previously thought. They estimate a maximum 70% of cases go unreported, which is significantly lower than the 250% estimates from public health officials in September this year. The authors were not able to offer new predictions on case counts in the Ebola outbreak, but state the CDCs prior estimation of 1.4 million by January 2015 is unlikely. (The CDC itself said that in November as well, and credited a robust international respoonse with lowering that number.)
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 10:49:55 +0000
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