FRESH HOPE FOR EBOLA CURE as Japan offers drug, Nigerian patient to be discharged

Fresh hope appears in the horizon for Ebola   patients as Japan on Monday expressed its readiness to provide its anti-influenza drug as treatment for the deadly virus.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, made the offer hours after a group of scientist in the United Kingdom said it had discovered that the largest outbreak of the   Ebola Virus Disease was caused by an infected fruit bat that bit a toddler.


Briefing   journalists in Tokyo on Monday, Suga said Japan   was ready to offer the drug, Favipiravir, which was developed by Toyama Chemical, a subsidiary of Fujifilm, any time   the World Health Organisation requested it.

Approved by the Japanese health ministry in March, Favipiravir is a tablet developed   for the treatment of novel and re-emerging influenza viruses.

Suga, according to the Agence France Presse,  said Japan was waiting for WHO’s decision on further details over the use of untested drugs.

He however said that “in case of an emergency, Japan may respond to individual requests before any further decision by the WHO.”

The spokesperson for the company, Takao Aoki, said Fujifilm had initiated talks with the United States on how the drug could be adopted in treating EVD.

He said, “Fujifilm is in talks with the US Food and Drug Administration on clinical testing of the drug in treating Ebola, The company has Favipiravir stock for more than 20,000 patients. Ebola and influenza viruses are the same type and theoretically similar effects can be expected on Ebola,” he said.

It was however not known as of Thursday last week if Favipiravir is the drug the Federal Ministry of Health had said it had requested from a foreign country.

The ministry which turned down a trial drug, Nano Silver, had applied for ZMapp which was administered on two US aid workers who contracted the virus in Liberia.

The two were discharged last Thursday, a few days after Washington said it did not have enough XMapp to send to countries in need of it.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government on Monday reversed the number of confirmed EVD cases in Nigeria from 14 to 13.

Health Minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, said while briefing journalists in Abuja that the   development followed the outcome of a further confirmation test conducted on the 14th case, which   turned out to be negative.

He also said another patient in the isolation centre in Lagos had   after receiving   treatment tested negative.

The patient, according to him, will be dicharged before Wednesday.

He said the development would bring from four to two, the number of patients still in the isolation ward.

The minister added that the number of deaths recorded so far in the country as a result of the disease still remained five, including the Late Patrick Sawyer, who brought the EVD to Nigeria from Liberia.

Chukwu said, “We have been able to manage and discharge five persons who had tested positive to the deadly virus, while the sixth person would be dicharged within the next 48 hours.


“For each case that tested negative, we run further confirmatory tests to make sure that anybody that is labelled as EVD victim, is truly having the disease.


“The 14th case has turned out to be negative in terms of anaemia and symptoms, so that has now reversed number of EVD cases in Nigeria from 14 to 13 and that includes the index case (Sawyer).