Congo approves clinical trials for Ebola treatments

KINSHASA (Reuters) – Congolese authorities have authorized clinical trials of four experimental treatments for Ebola, which will allow researchers to collect valuable data on their effectiveness, the health ministry said Saturday.

Health workers have already administered therapeutic treatments to more than 150 Ebola patients since August to contain the worst of the 10 epidemics of hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1976.

But until now, doctors have decided which treatment to use on a case-by-case basis. In the clinical trial, the choice of treatment will now be randomized.

The treatment will always be free, the ministry said in a statement.

"Valuable information on the effectiveness of treatments obtained during the clinical trial will allow these treatments to be scaled up to save more lives," the ministry said.

The four treatments are mAb114, which was developed by the US government; ZMapp, an intravenous treatment manufactured by Mapp Biopharmaceutical; Remdesivir, manufactured by Gilead Sciences; and Regeneron's REGN-EB3.

At the end of last week, 151 patients had received one of four drugs. Of these, 76 had recovered, 44 had died and 31 were still hospitalized – a mortality rate of 37%.

In contrast, among those who had not received treatment, the mortality rate was close to 80%.

The ministry said the current outbreak data would probably not be sufficient to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of treatments and that testing could continue in future outbreaks.

Despite the use of treatments and the experimental vaccine manufactured by Merck, authorities have struggled to contain the epidemic due to widespread violence perpetrated by militias in eastern Congo and the Congo. community resistance to health workers.

At least 228 people are reported to have died, and the World Health Organization announced last week that it expected the epidemic to last at least six months.