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Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
#12Geisbert notes that about half of Ebola patients survive without taking ZMapp. What is the actual mortality rate? I have heard reports varying from 40% to 90%.
According to More or Less, 90% was the mortality rate of one particular historical outbreak.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreor...
edit - It also says that 52% is the current figure on this outbreak and that if you count up all cases, then Ebola has a mortality rate of 60-65%.
Re: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wiki has humans and chimpanzees/bonobos in different subtribes, so humans wouldn't be under "Chimpanzees ->": Tribe Hominini Subtribe Panina Genus Pan Chimpanzee (common chimpanzee), Pan troglodytes Central chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes Western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes ellioti Eastern chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii Bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee),…
Yeah, it's not the mainstream classification but it's been proposed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee ) and I find it entertaining. So. ;)
I particularly like Pans Narrans as a classification.
Though I suspect that Pans Superbia might be unfortunately closer to the mark.
Re: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
#14Geisbert notes that about half of Ebola patients survive without taking ZMapp. What is the actual mortality rate? I have heard reports varying from 40% to 90%.
It varies by subtype.
Indeed. There were 5 classified types prior to this outbreak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification
With the Zaire strain, now just called plain Ebola virus, normally with an observed fatality rate of 83% or 76% (two figures from different Wikipedia articles) and up to 90%, and at the other end a Reston ebolavirus with no fatalities among exposed lab workers.
This West African outbreak has been sequenced and is a Zaire strain with plenty of mutations that perhaps have significantly dropped its fatality rate, see this section and the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_o...
Re: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
#15I really hope someday computer simulations become so detailed and accurate that we don't have to test on animals anymore.
Re: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
#16I really hope someday computer simulations become so detailed and accurate that we don't have to test on animals anymore.
There's a small bit about this in the video "Humans Need Not Apply". Go to the ~10 minute mark.
Re: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
#17This is using antibodies, i.e. works on the principle of passive immunity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity
By calling it a "drug", and that its way of action 'is unknown' etc., the article makes it sound a bit like they were talking about the engineering of a new chemical compound, when in fact the way of action seems straight-forward. The new work will probably just be in details of the production and perhaps embedding or some such of the antibodies.
Maybe my rejection stems from my native language (German) calling treatments like this "passive Impfung", literally "passive vaccination", while we seem to reserve the word "Medikament" (drug) for non-biologic actors.