The Week Junior UK – 24 August 2019

14

Scienceand technology

The Week Junior•24August

D

octors may soon be able to cureadiseasecalled

Ebola, after two drugs tried out in the Democratic

Republic of theCongo (DRC), incentral Africa, were

found to help people survive the disease.

Ebola isarareillness thatcauses high

temperature, weakness and aching muscles.People

cancatch the virus if theycome intocontact with

bodily fluids (such as blood, spit or sweat) from an

person or animal that has the disease. About half

of the number of patients whocatch the illness die

from it.Tens of thousands of people have died

from it sincethe viruswasdiscovered in

1976, and doctors arestruggling to

stop anew outbreakint he DRC

from spreading. In the past

year ,almost 2,000 people in

the country have died from

the disease.

Thereisnovaccine

(a kind of medicine) that

canprevent people from

catching Ebola, but the US

National Institute of Allergy and

Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and

the World Health Organizationrece ntly

announced that two drugs might be able to stop

the virus. The drugs,called REGN-EB3 and mAb114,

work by attacking the Ebola virus with antibodies –

substances the body produces naturally to defend

itself from bugs thatcause illness. MAb114was

developedfromantibodiestaken from people who

survived Ebola;REGN-EB3comes from the antibodies

of micethat survived after being infected on purpose

in alaboratory.Both these antibodiescanstop Ebola

from killing humancells and making people ill.

In tests, the survivalrate of patients with low

levels of the Ebola virus in their blood

was94% when they weregiven

REGN-EB3, and 89% when

they took mAb114. Health

officials now believe that

“morethan 90% of people

[could] survive,”ifthey are

treated early enough.

On 13 August, two people

cured of Ebola with these

drugs werereunited with

theirfamilies.Aspokesperson

for NIAID said theresults weregood

news for the fight against the disease.

Doctors astepcloser

tocuringEbolavirus

Illustration of an

Ebola virus attack.

Avaccine isatype of medicine that trains

the body toreco gnise and fightaparticular

disease. They work likethis:aweakened or

dead version of the disease (either bacteria or

avirus) is injected intoapatient. The patient’s

bodyreco gnises the disease as an invader,even

though it is not as dangerous as thereal illness,

and produces antibodies (protective proteins

that attack foreign substances in the body) to

fight it. If that patient latercomes intocontact

with astronger version of the disease, the body

remembers it andcanfight it off quickly before

any damage is done. Accord ing to theWorld

Health Organization,vaccines areone of the

biggest success stories of medicine and saved

around 10 million livesbetween 2010 and 2015.

Howdovaccineswork?

Ebola patients in DRC

rece iving the new drugs.

DIDYOU

KNOW?

Ebola is name

daftert

he

Ebola River

,wheret

he

disease

wasfirst

recognis

edin 19

76.