Lab Tests Show Experimental Ebola Treatments Effective

Two experimental Ebola treatments being used in the current outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have proved effective in laboratory tests with human cells, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study was published online in the The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The tests showed that the treatments -- the antiviral remdesivir and antibodies in the ZMapp treatment -- blocked growth of the Ebola virus strain causing the outbreak.

The findings suggest that the two treatments hold promise for enabling patients to recover from the deadly illness, according to the CDC.

"All of the treatments being tested in the current DRC outbreak were developed to fight Ebola viruses from previous outbreaks," lead author Laura McMullan, Ph.D., a CDC microbiologist, said in an agency news release. "RNA viruses are always mutating -- and because Ebola is an RNA virus it's vitally important to make sure existing treatments work against the virus that's making people sick now."

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