
Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested - zefi
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/29/ebola-zmapp-success-monkeys/14793487/
======
zaroth
_The best way to control the current outbreak is with traditional measures:
diagnosing patients, isolating them, tracing their contacts and testing them,
and extending the process out in circles, until all exposed patients have been
isolated._

I was wondering about the software they use to track this process, if any?
Say, for example, you get the manifest for a plane where a passenger was
infected. If you wanted to track infections from that point, which is unlikely
but possible, that's a lot of work. And if it spirals out from there?

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ams6110
_Geisbert notes that about half of Ebola patients survive without taking
ZMapp._

What is the actual mortality rate? I have heard reports varying from 40% to
90%.

~~~
dylz
It varies by subtype.

~~~
hga
Indeed. There were 5 classified types prior to this outbreak:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification)

With the Zaire strain, now just called plain _Ebola virus_ , normally with an
observed fatality rate of 83% or 76% (two figures from different Wikipedia
articles) and up to 90%, and at the other end a _Reston ebolavirus_ with no
fatalities among exposed lab workers.

This West African outbreak has been sequenced and is a Zaire strain with
plenty of mutations that perhaps have significantly dropped its fatality rate,
see this section and the following:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_outbreak#Fatality_rate)

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pflanze
This is using antibodies, i.e. works on the principle of passive immunity.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity)

By calling it a "drug", and that its way of action 'is unknown' etc., the
article makes it sound a bit like they were talking about the engineering of a
new chemical compound, when in fact the way of action seems straight-forward.
The new work will probably just be in details of the production and perhaps
embedding or some such of the antibodies.

Maybe my rejection stems from my native language (German) calling treatments
like this "passive Impfung", literally "passive vaccination", while we seem to
reserve the word "Medikament" (drug) for non-biologic actors.

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ck2
I really hope someday computer simulations become so detailed and accurate
that we don't have to test on animals anymore.

~~~
atom-morgan
There's a small bit about this in the video "Humans Need Not Apply". Go to the
~10 minute mark.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU)

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cocolos
Last I checked I thought we were more closely related to primates not monkeys
--not sure if that's of any significance.

~~~
tejon
Monkeys are primates.

Oh, let's see if I can remember the main groupings...

Primates ->

> Lower Primates ->

> > Tarsiers

> > Aye-Ayes

> > Lorises

> Lemurs & Red Pandas

> Simians ->

> > New World Monkeys

> > Old World Monkeys

> Hominoids ->

> > Gibbons & Siamangs

> > Great Apes ->

> > > Orangutans

> > > Gorillas

> > > Chimpanzees ->

> > > > Chimpanzee

> > > > Bonobo

> > > > Humans

~~~
Crito
Wiki has humans and chimpanzees/bonobos in different subtribes, so humans
wouldn't be under "Chimpanzees ->":

    
    
      Tribe Hominini
       Subtribe Panina
        Genus Pan
         Chimpanzee (common chimpanzee), Pan troglodytes
          Central chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes
          Western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus
          Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes ellioti
          Eastern chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii
         Bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee), Pan paniscus
       Subtribe Hominina
        Genus Homo
         Human, Homo sapiens
          Anatomically modern human, Homo sapiens sapiens

~~~
tejon
Yeah, it's not the mainstream classification but it's been proposed
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee))
and I find it entertaining. So. ;)

~~~
lotsofmangos
I particularly like Pans Narrans as a classification.

Though I suspect that Pans Superbia might be unfortunately closer to the mark.

