Ebola: 3 new drug trials on MSF patients
THE Ebola Treatment Centres operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Katwa and Butembo, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, are participating in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of four potential Ebola-treatments in North Kivu, DRC.
The trial originally began in November in another treatment centre in the region and MSF facilities are now in a position to contribute to providing valuable information on these developmental products.
The treatments that will be used in the RCT are Remdesivir, mAb114, REGN-EB3 and ZMapp.
They have been offered to the patients since the beginning of this epidemic under monitored emergency use of unregistered and investigational interventions (Meuri).
The switch from Meuri to a clinical trial is a critical step because a clinical trial can generate the scientific data needed to draw conclusions on how effective these treatments are.
The main objective of this trial is to identify which is the most effective of the four products in treating Ebola patients.
The trial is overseen by a steering committee convened by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and led by the International National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) of DRC and the NIH (US National Institute of Health), in collaboration with other national and international actors.
Butembo and Katwa are currently the hot spots of the Ebola epidemic that was declared in DRC on August 1, 2018.
The Butembo treatment centre can admit 96 people, while the one in Katwa, which opened last month, has a 62-bed capacity.
Since the two centres have opened, MSF has admitted more than 2 100 patients to them, of which 250 were confirmed cases, with 110 cases recovering.
To support MSF’s work:
SMS “JOIN” to 41486 to donate R15 per month.
Visit www.msf.org.za/donate
A clinical trial can generate the scientific data that is needed to draw conclusions as to how effective these treatments are