Issues of tone aside, this is the most important article Ive seen on Ebola. The authors proposals are correct (I just wish she would have said it slightly differently to avoid the backlash.): 1. Testing potential Ebola medicines is a priority. 2. The only way to access potential Ebola medicines must be randomisation in a clinical trial. No compassionate use (sorry). We need an answer to what works with the small number of doses available as soon as possible. Compassionate use is tempting and often right but here it will delay finding out vital information that will save many more lives. 3. While safety issues of experimental medicines are always a concern, they are secondary given the high mortality and infectiousness of the disease, and that there are no known effective treatments. No need for Phase I and II trials. Straight to Phase III. Obviously there must be some compelling reason to think a medicine could work though before it is trialled in people. We have two candidates. Lets test them. 4. Health workers have priority entry into the trial, but they get randomised. 5. Ideally it should be placebo-controlled, not because theres any chance a placebo could work with Ebola, but because doctors might bias the selection of who gets the treatment. Via Francois Venter scientiasalon.wordpress/2014/08/14/on-the-science-and-ethics-of-ebola-treatments/ Anso Thom Marcus Low Zackie Achmat Jack Lewis Graeme Meintjes Jacques Rousseau Vuyiseka Dubula
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 07:25:35 +0000
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