Ebola: ZMapp safe and effective, US doctor assures Liberia

The co-head on Social Mobilization at the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL), Dr. Elizabeth Higgs has assured Liberians that the experimental therapy drug against the disease, ZMapp, is safe and effective.According to Higgs, treatment with the drug is well recommended, suggesting that it holds some promise as an antidote against the Ebola virus.

Speaking during the Ministry of Information’s regular briefing in Monrovia on Thursday, Dr. Higgs remarked: “ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. based in San Diego, California, U.S. is a mixture of three different anti-Ebola antibodies.

Antibodies are infection-fighting proteins produced by the body that attach to the surface of the Ebola virus, thereby preventing it from damaging the cell.

According to Higgs, the randomized, controlled study was designed to enroll up to 200 patients of any age with confirmed Ebola virus infection.

She said during ten months of the study which began on March 13, 2015, 72 patients joined the study, and that on January 29, 2016, the trail leaders closed the study because no more Ebola cases were expected.

The 72 participants included 54 from seven clinical sites in Sierra Leone, 12 from Guinea, five from two sites in Liberia, and one from the United States, she added.

“To assess how well ZMapp worked against Ebola, the PREVAIL team compared the number of deaths in each group at 28 days after enrollment. In the study, 21 patients died, a mortality rate of almost 30 percent.

“The standard-of-care group had 13/35/ (37) percent deaths compared with 8/36 (22percent) deaths in the ZMapp group,â€� Dr. Higgs said.

PREVAIL launched an Ebola vaccine trial in Liberia as their first study, PREAVIL I. in February 2015.

PREVAIL II tested an experimental Ebola treatment known as ZMapp in patients enrolled in West Africa and the United States.