NEWS ABOUT Ebola, a viral disease that kills up to 90% of those it infects, is usually grim. The latest outbreak, in the Democratic Republic of Congo , has thus far killed nearly 1,900 people and rages on. But on August 12th the grimness lifted somewhat with the announcement that two anti-Ebola treatments being tested in the country have proved effective. If administered when the first signs of infection appear, they boost survival rates to about 90%.
The treatments in question employ antibodies. These are special protein molecules made by the immune system in response to infection. They work by locking onto specific parts of invading pathogens, or of body cells infected by those pathogens—either gumming the target up and disabling it or marking it for destruction by other parts of the immune-system.
Prompt use after infection is vital. Overall, 29% of those receiving REGN-EB3 died. But of people treated when their viral loads were still low only 6% succumbed. For mAb114 the numbers were 34% and 11% respectively—superficially worse, but actually indistinguishable, statistically speaking, from the results for REGN-EB3. Two other candidates had significantly worse figures than these, and were therefore rejected by the overseers.
Both REGN-EB3 and mAb114 have histories. Regeneron developed the former in 2016, in response to an Ebola epidemic in West Africa in which 11,000 people died. But that outbreak came to an end before the treatment could make its way into clinics, and until now there has been no opportunity to test it. The story of mAb114 goes back even further. Its pertinent antibody was isolated from a survivor of an epidemic of Ebola in the DRC in 1995.
Both treatments will now be deployed in the field—but, given the smallish size of the trial that approved them, doctors will be looking closely at their relative efficacies to determine whether, in light of more data, one is actually better than the other. Regardless of that, effective treatment will surely help break the epidemic directly, by stopping those cured passing on the virus. And it may help indirectly, too.
EXPERIMENT!
The real question is, what will the Eddie fight be like? The fight seems to be the one where Eddie finally stops eating meat and the doctor makes the decision to open up his mouth. But the question is, will it be as effective as the one with Eddie's teeth and some other form of s
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