MOSCOW, November 13 (Sputnik) – Medical trials of experimental drugs intended to combat the Ebola virus disease will start in three treatment centers in West Africa, humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), reported on Thursday.
“The separate trials, which are aimed at quickly finding an effective therapy that can be used against the disease which has so far taken around 5,000 lives in the current outbreak in the region, will be led by three different research partners,” MSF’s news release says.
The trial in Gueckedou, Guinea will be led by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) will lead a trial in Conakry, Guinea. The site for a trial led by the University of Oxford on behalf of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) is not yet known.
“This is an unprecedented international partnership which represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment against a disease that today kills between 50 and 80% of those infected,” Annick Antierens, a doctor coordinating MSF’s investigational team, said. She added that “there is no guarantee that these therapies will be the miracle cure,” but expressed hope that the medical trials will “increase the chances of finding an effective treatment".
Results of the investigations are expected to be available in February 2015.
Treatments selected for the trials include antiviral drugs favipiravir and brincidofovir, as well as convalescent whole blood and plasma therapy.
“We want to find out whether it works for Ebola, whether it is safe and whether it can be scaled-up to reduce the number of deaths in the current outbreak,” Johan van Griensven, a coordinator of ITM’s scientists stated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and health authorities of the affected countries will also participate in the effort.
MSF’s mission against Ebola was launched in West Africa in March. The organization opened six management centers providing 600 beds in isolation for patients from Guinea, Liberia and Senegal, the countries with the highest number of confirmed cases. Since the start of the mission the MSF has sent more than 700 international specialists to assist in the fight against the Ebola outbreak in the region.
