Is there a cure for Ebola?
As stated by the World Health Organization itself, outbreaks of disease by the virus of Ebola have a case-fatality rate that can reach 90%. And it presents a high lethality fundamentally because, until now, there is no cure for Ebola, neither a specific medical treatment, nor a preventive vaccine that helps in the prevention of infection. In fact, in the case of the current Ebola outbreak that mainly affects some countries in Africa and that began at the end of last year 2013, WHO itself estimates that the case-fatality rate is 50%.
So far the different medical specialists have not been able to find a cure that is effective in cases of people infected with Ebola. For now there are only experimental treatments, which have been used in some of the recently affected patients.
These types of experimental treatments contain antibodies (proteins that 'fight' against the virus) that have been created in animals infected with Ebola, and have finally been extracted from them for use in humans. About its results, while some of the patients who have received this experimental treatment have survived, others have died, which shows their lack of effectiveness and is a confirmation that further research should be conducted.
Therefore, at present we find that the only treatment that exists is known as support treatment: the patient is given fluids in order to avoid dehydration, they are transfused with blood and / or platelets in order to fight the bleeding, and they are given medicines to control the fever. In some cases they are given serum from infected people who have been cured and have survived Ebola, but they have not been shown to be effective.
Image | NIAID
