'We will no longer say that Ebola is
not curable'
Sierra Leone: Health workers prepare
to enter an area where Ebola patients get treat by EC/ECHO/Cyprien Fabre, August 2,
2014. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
On August 12, the World Health
Organization (WHO) announced a positive development in the clinical trials of
drugs being tested for the treatment of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DR of Congo).
WHO asserted that the Ebola drugs “advances that will bring patients a
better chance of survival,” and further affirmed that “two out of the four
drugs being tested are more effective in treating Ebola.”
Who is the man behind the Ebola
cure? Esteemed professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, director-general of the
Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) DR of Congo, who invested a
substantial part of his adult life treating the virus.
While the international media has
often focused heavily on the deadly, contagious nature of Ebola in DR of Congo,
less has been said about the Congolese scientist who discovered its cure.
Muyembe-Tamfum declared:
“We will no longer say that EVD [Ebola virus disease] is not curable.”
Based on Muyembe-Tamfum's tireless
work, scientists tested four drugs for Ebola treatment: . The
results from the clinical trials conducted in 499 study participants showed
that patients treated with “REGN-EB3 or mAb114 had a greater chance of
survival” when compared to those treated with the two other drugs.
The trials were conducted under the
auspices of the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), the DR Congo
Ministry of Health and three medical humanitarian organizations: the Alliance
for International Medical Action (ALIMA), the International Medical Corps (IMC)
and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The
Congolese scientist behind the Ebola treatment
Muyembe-Tamfum has been researching
Ebola since its first known outbreak in DR of Congo in 1976 when he became firstto travel to the area of the
first outbreak.
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