HOPE ON THE CURE OF EBOLA: Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested
In what scientists are calling a "monumental achievement," an experimental medication called ZMapp — given on a compassionate basis to a handful of Ebola victims in the current outbreak — cured 100% of monkeys treated in a Canadian study, researchers announced Friday. According to USA TODAY , ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals of San Diego, is in the early stage of development and has never been formally tested in humans. In a study published Friday in the journal Nature, however, the drug allowed all 18 rhesus macaques infected with a lethal dose of Ebola to recover. The drug worked even when given five days after infection. The monkeys received three doses of ZMapp, administered three days apart, according to the study, which was conducted by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The three monkeys that did not receive ZMapp died within eight days of infection. In monkeys given ZMapp, however, the drug reversed severe symptoms, including severe bleeding, rashes an...