Two existing treatments considerably reduce mortality linked to the Ebola virus disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday, August 19, which strongly recommends its administration to all people who suffer from this hemorrhagic fever.
This is the first time that WHO has made treatment recommendations for Ebola.
In its guidelines released on Friday, the organization makes a "
strong recommendation for treatment with mAb114 or REGN-EB3
" in patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD).
It makes the same recommendation for “
newborns with unconfirmed Ebola virus disease, aged 7 days or less, born to mothers with confirmed EVD
”.
Conclusive studies
mAb114 is a monoclonal antibody marketed under the Ebanga brand and REGN-EB3 is a cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies.
These two treatments were approved at the end of 2020 by the American Medicines Agency (FDA) and are already used to treat Ebola patients.
"
Patients should receive the recommended neutralizing monoclonal antibodies as soon as possible after laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis,
" the WHO said in a statement.
Studies have shown that both treatments significantly reduce Ebola-related mortality, WHO clinical team leader Janet Diaz told a press briefing in Geneva.
These treatments can save between 230 and 400 lives out of 1,000 people infected.
“
WHO stands ready to help countries, manufacturers and partners to improve access to these treatments, and to support national and global efforts to make them more affordable
,” the organization said.
A deadly epidemic
In its guidelines, the WHO recommends, on the other hand, not to administer the ZMapp treatment (based on monoclonal antibodies) and the antiviral remdesivir.
The Ebola virus causes an often fatal disease.
The outbreak that raged between 2013 and 2016 in West Africa was the largest since the discovery of the virus in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, then Zaire), killing more than 11,300 people.
Read alsoThe DRC declares the end of its 14th Ebola epidemic
More than a dozen epidemics have affected the DRC, the deadliest of which killed 2,280 people in 2020. The virus is named after a river in northern DRC, near which the first epidemic broke out.
In addition to treatments, vaccines have been developed in recent years and are used to interrupt the chains of transmission.
