By RFIPalled on 16-08-2019Modified on 16-08-2019 at 09:42

Experts from the Data Surveillance and Security Committee (DSMB) of the Ebola Virus Disease announced Thursday, August 15, 2019 the discovery of two curative molecules against Ebola. MAb114 and Regeneron have already been used for a week in the current response to the epidemic. One of the inventors of mAb114 is Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, currently leading the Ebola response teams.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe appeared in Kinshasa on Thursday (August 15th) in front of the press to congratulate himself on the first results of the curative treatment against Ebola.

At the origin of the invention of one of these products with Professor Sabue Malangu, but also at the head of the response teams, he said he was reassured about the progress of the fight against the epidemic.

But he insists, however, on the way forward. " For an Ebola patient to be cured, he or she must be sent to a treatment center quickly ," he says. You have to come early and you are given this treatment. In 90% of cases, the healing will follow. So Ebola is no longer the disease that was said to be incurable .

Overcoming people's mistrust

With these new products, the death rate among Ebola patients is expected to drop significantly. According to Professor Muyembe, these curative treatments must help end people's mistrust and stigmatization.

" The sick are no longer condemned to die ," he says. The population now will no longer pretend to say : "We must not send patients to treatment centers because they will return to a coffin . " This idea is now erased .

Congolese teams working on Ebola say they are very optimistic and believe they can stop the epidemic in just over three months.

However, these forecasts are not shared by many NGOs involved in the response. They believe that despite the effectiveness of products, a second year with Ebola is announced in the DRC.

The virus has already caused more than 1,900 deaths in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, said Wednesday, August 14 the Multisectoral Technical Secretariat for Ebola in its newsletter.

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