It seems early diagnosis and treatment "cures" EBOLA

[DemocratSinceBirth]

The young nurse who contracted the virus seems to be getting well. She was also diagnosed early and is presumably receiving world class treatment. That being said how likely is that every EBOLA patient will be diagnosed early and receive world class treatment and are there if no resources in the world to provide it?

[unblock]

1. the most relevant part of that "world-class treatment" is just maintaining proper hydration

and best guess is that it reduces a roughly 70% mortality rate to about a 30% mortality rate.

certainly nothing to sneeze at, but i wouldn't call it a "cure", not even in quotes.

[MineralMan]

2. That and plasma from Ebola survivors.

The antibodies can kickstart the body's response to the virus and often help beat the disease. Early detection and treatment is important. Supportive care is also crucial, to maintain hydration, etc.

That doesn't always work, of course, and isn't always available, especially in impoverished areas.

The high mortality of Ebola is part of the disease, but it is made higher if the standard of care is low, as it is in some places.

[The Magistrate]

3. Pretty Far From My Areas Of Expertise, Sir

But one wonders if the useful elements of the plasma could be cloned, or bacteria rigged to manufacture them....

[MineralMan]

4. A good question. There is work ongoing about this.

There is an antibody-based treatment that is apparently effective. The antibodies are produced, oddly enough, in tobacco plants. That, however takes time. The tiny quantities of the material available have been used, to good effect, on a few patients, including those who came to the US first. Currently, production of those tobacco plants that will produce the antibody-based treatment has been scaled up. This is being done by the Reynolds company and they're working as fast as they can to produce more of this experimental treatment. Plants, however, grow at their own pace, so it will take some time.

The other options for producing antibodies would also take time. I'm not sure about using bacteria to produce them, but I'm sure that's being investigated. They might also be produced in animals, but that also takes time and testing is required to find out if that works.

Everything takes time. Even if the testing process is shortened and experimental treatments are given before being proven to work, the time required to prepare those treatments can be longer than we suspect. I know that several programs are being ramped up, including one to produce large quantities of an experimental Ebola vaccine which has protected some lab animals. All of these things are being rushed into production and will probably be used without the usual years of testing, since it is an emergency situation.

There's lots of information out there, but much of it is highly technical in nature and hard to find. So, we don't see much about what's actually going on in the media. It's just too hard to find out and explain for the media to bother with. I know about it, but it's also too complicated to thoroughly explain on a site like DU, as well, and my expertise is not sufficient to explain it. I also have to earn a living, so my time to do research on what is going on is very limited.

Anyhow, there's a lot going on that will bear fruit in the next months. But it takes time to do everything. We'll see which of these experimental efforts works and which do not, but only after time has passed.

[The Magistrate]

5. Thank You For The Information, Sir

Much obliged.

[MineralMan]

6. Glad to help. I wish I could be of

more help.

[hedgehog]

7. From the description of how the victims get dehydrated,

I have to wonder if using the same oral hydration solution used to treat cholera would be of any help. Someone must have tried this at least once, so I have to assume it's not effective.

[kestrel91316]

9. Oral is kind of pointless when you are puking your guts out.

[kestrel91316]

8. "Cure" is only applied to chronic diseases or persistent conditions by the medical people

I know. "Successful treatment" is more appropriate. "Recovery" works.

Cure is overused/misused constantly for dramatic effect and it drives me batshit crazy.

[kestrel91316]

10. She also got immune serum. The bigwigs like to pooh-pooh that, but

is a fundamentally sound principle and no doubt played at least some role in her doing so well.

We're only supposed to use factory-made, EXPENSIVE pharmaceutical drugs, you know.