This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.
Scientists appear to have made progress toward a treatment forthe Ebola virus. Most people infected with Ebola die.
Scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Instituteof Infectious Diseases carried out the study. Their results appearthis month in the British medical publication The Lancet.
The scientists injected twelvemonkeys with the Ebola virus. Then nine of the animals received anexperimental drug. It is called recombinant nematode anticoagulantprotein c-two. The monkeys received the drug almost immediately orwithin twenty-four hours of infection. They continued to receive thedrug each day for up to fourteen days.
Ebola normally kills any monkey it infects. But three of the ninemonkeys treated with the drug survived. The other six died; however,the study says the drug delayed their death for several days. Thethree monkeys left untreated also died.
Thomas Geisbert led the study. He says his team considered theEbola problem in a new way. In past studies, scientists testedanti-retroviral medicine as a possible way to prevent infection. TheArmy researchers instead examined ways to treat signs of thedisease.
They say the experimental drug appears to stop the effects of aprotein called tissue factor. White blood cells release this proteinas they try to fight the infection. It causes the cells to sticktogether, or clot. Ebola victims die from severe clotting andbleeding inside the body. The experimental drug is made fromhookworms, which use the chemical to keep blood flowing in theirvictims.
Other scientists are also testing the drug as a treatment forheart trouble.
Signs of the Ebola virus include a sudden rise in bodytemperature, weakness, muscle pain and a headache. This progressesinto vomiting and diarrhea, and bleeding inside and outside thebody.
Over the years, the Ebola virus has killed more than one-thousandpeople in outbreaks in central Africa. It was first discovered innineteen-seventy-six, near the Ebola River, and is spread throughbody fluids. The starting point in nature is not known.
The Republic of Congo has had a recent spread of the disease. TheWorld Health Organization says officials had reported twenty-ninedeaths as of December eleventh in the Mbomo District.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. This is Robert Cohen.