Ebola treatment shows promising results in Guinea

For the first time since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa more than a year ago, an experimental drug to treat the disease has shown "positive" results.

Medical staff transfer an Ebola patient to a hospital in Biankouma, Cote d'Ivoire. (Source: AFP/VNA)

The French medical research institute Inserm announced on February 5 that about 80 patients in Guinea who were tested with a drug provided by Japan recovered faster and the number of deaths also decreased.

Favipiravir, also known as Avigan, is manufactured by Toyama Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corporation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that although no scientific report has been published, the results have sparked new hope for efforts to deal with this dangerous virus that has infected nearly 22,500 people and claimed the lives of nearly 9,000 people in the past year.

Inserm began testing Favipiravir on patients at its treatment center in Gueckedou, eastern Guinea, on December 17, 2014, with the support of Guinean authorities and researchers, NGOs, the French Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. It is the largest clinical trial ever conducted with an experimental drug against Ebola.

Inserm is expected to officially announce the results of this trial at the end of February.

In an effort to support "epidemic" countries to fight Ebola, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just announced debt reduction of nearly 100 million USD for the three countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the organization would also provide loans of up to $160 million to these countries after launching a $130 million financial support package to fight the epidemic in September 2014.

Ms Lagarde also pledged to urge other lending institutions to provide debt relief to the three countries.

Senior United Nations and WHO officials on February 6 called for more aid money to help fight a resurgence of Ebola in West Africa, as the number of new cases rose for the first time this year last week.

According to WHO, the number of new infections recorded in the week ending February 1 was 124 cases, an increase of 25 cases compared to the previous week.

UN Special Envoy David Nabarro said that from October to December 2014, the fight against Ebola cost more than 850 million USD. It is estimated that this fight will need 1.5 billion USD in the first six months of 2015./

According to Vietnam+