A doctor who was used anti-HIV medication to treat Ebola out of desperation after being inundated with patients, has reported positive results.
Dr Gobee Logan gave the drug lamivudine to 15 Ebola patients in a clinic in Tubmanburg, and 13 survived.
This gives patients treated with lamivudine a 7% mortality rate, whereas overall mortality rates for those infected are 70%.
"My stomach was hurting; I was feeling weak; I was vomiting," Ebola patient Elizabeth Kundu, 23, told CNN. "They gave me medicine, and I'm feeling fine. We take it, and we can eat – we're feeling fine in our bodies."
Those patients who survived after taking lamivudine, took the medication during the first five days of infection. The two who died started treatment five and eight days after onset of the illness.
"I'm sure that when [patients] present early, this medicine can help," Logan said. "I've proven it right in my center."
Logan said that he was aware that the medical establishment would remain sceptical until research had been undertaken involving a much larger group of patients, half of whom would be given lamivudine, and the other half a placebo.
"Our people are dying and you're taking about studies?" he said. "It's a matter of doing all that I can do as a doctor to save some people's lives."
He said that he decided to try using lamivudine after reading in a medical journal that HIV and Ebola replicates in the body in similar ways.
Initially Logan tried the drug on a colleague who had become infected, and within two days he showed signs of improvement and survived.
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN that they would be willing to carry out follow-up tests.
The World Health Organisation said that experimental use of two trial Ebola vaccines developed by GlaxoSmithKline and NewLink has begun. |
據(jù)美國(guó)有線電視新聞網(wǎng)9月27日?qǐng)?bào)道,埃博拉疫情持續(xù)肆虐,病人之多已遠(yuǎn)超醫(yī)院負(fù)荷,感染人數(shù)仍在不斷攀升,援助和疫苗也遲遲不見(jiàn)蹤影,絕望之中,利比里亞一醫(yī)生“兵行險(xiǎn)著”,啟用抗HIV藥物進(jìn)行治療,不料竟獲奇效。
在杜伯曼堡的一家隔離中心,醫(yī)生洛根讓診所內(nèi)的埃博拉感染者服用了治療艾滋病的藥物拉米夫定,結(jié)果15人中13人生還,死亡率從原來(lái)的70%下降至了7%。
病人伊麗莎白說(shuō):“原本胃痛得厲害,感覺(jué)很虛弱,不停地吐。吃過(guò)藥以后覺(jué)得有所好轉(zhuǎn),現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)可以進(jìn)食了。”
據(jù)了解,生還病人在感染后的5天內(nèi)服用了拉米夫定,而不治的兩人在服用藥物時(shí)已感染了5到8天。洛根表示,如果病人及早就醫(yī),藥物就能更好地發(fā)揮作用,“至少我的病人已經(jīng)證明了拉米夫定是有效的”。
但他同時(shí)表示,醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)對(duì)此療法可能仍抱懷疑態(tài)度,只有在對(duì)大批病人進(jìn)行隨機(jī)對(duì)照試驗(yàn)后,才會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)變看法。他說(shuō):“我們的病人都快死了,還討論研究?我是個(gè)醫(yī)生,要做的就是盡力多救幾個(gè)人。”
洛根的靈感來(lái)源于醫(yī)學(xué)雜志上的一篇文章,文章稱,埃博拉病毒在人體內(nèi)的復(fù)制過(guò)程和HIV病毒頗為相似,他由此產(chǎn)生了“用抗HIV藥物治療”的大膽想法。起初,他在染病同事身上“試藥”,兩天不到,該同事就顯示出了好轉(zhuǎn)的跡象。
美國(guó)國(guó)家過(guò)敏和傳染病研究所的研究人員表示“愿意開展跟進(jìn)測(cè)試”。疫苗方面,雖進(jìn)展緩慢但總算也傳來(lái)了好消息,制藥商N(yùn)ewLink Genetics和葛蘭素史克的兩種試驗(yàn)性埃博拉疫苗已進(jìn)入臨床試驗(yàn)階段。
(譯者 ADDID 編輯 丹妮)
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