PARIS — A British nurse who contracted Ebola in West Africa has fully recovered and was discharged on Wednesday, the Royal Free Hospital in London said.
The nurse, William Pooley, 29, contracted the disease in August while volunteering in Sierra Leone. He was flown to London for 10 days of treatment at the Royal Free Hospital, which has the only high-level isolation unit in Britain, the hospital said in a statement on its website.
Mr. Pooley was treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, although it is not known whether the drug contributed to his recovery.
In a separate statement from the hospital, Mr. Pooley said he counted himself fortunate to get the treatment he had received in London when compared to what he had seen while working in West Africa.[eap_ad_2]
Dr. Michael Jacobs, an infectious diseases specialist at the Royal Free Hospital, said William Pooley had made a complete recovery from Ebola. More than 3,500 cases of Ebola have been confirmed and more than 1,500 have died so far in the latest outbreak, the most extensive since the disease was first identified in 1976. A majority of the cases have occurred in three countries in West Africa – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
ZMapp is made up of antibodies that are first harvested from mice exposed to a key Ebola protein. The antibodies are then genetically modified to make them more like human antibodies. The resulting antibodies are then manufactured in genetically engineered tobacco plants.
The primary developer of the drug is Mapp Biopharmaceutical, which is based in San Diego.
In an study published in August by the science journal Nature, 18 monkeys exposed to a lethal dose of the Ebola virus survived after being given ZMapp, even when the treatment started five days after infection. The study was greeted with cautious optimism by some experts, who said that the results raised hopes that the drug could work on people. (NY Times)[eap_ad_3]
