Crack Ebola team in race to find cure

Researchers pin hopes on treatment with blood from survivors

Scientists from one of the world's leading institutes of tropical medicine, which first discovered the Ebola virus in the 1970s, flew out to Guinea yesterday to begin ground-breaking research into a possible cure, racing against the clock to find a treatment that will help stem the deaths in the current epidemic.

Johan van Griensven, lead researcher from Antwerp's Institute of Tropical Medicine, said he was "moderately positive" the study into whether blood from Ebola survivors could treat new victims would yield results in time to have an impact.

"There surely is a real urgency to get started soon, yet careful preparation is of the essence," he said just before boarding a plane to Guinea. "If the treatment works and Ebola survivors are willing to donate blood, I am confident the treatment, in particular whole blood therapy, can be rolled out across the affected countries."

The institute has the history and expertise to deal with the deadly virus: in 1976 a flask of blood taken from a sick Belgian nun working in Zaire arrived in Antwerp. ITM scientists were at first flummoxed by the disease, then diagnosed the first recorded case of Ebola.

A research trip into the central African rainforests to understand the mysterious new virus laid the groundwork for how Ebola is identified and contained today.

Now the institute is back at the forefront of the fight against the virus which has killed more than 4800 people in parts of West Africa. Van Griensven and his colleague will be arriving in Guinea less than two weeks after ITM got the final go-ahead and a 2.9 million ($4.69 million) grant from the European Union to lead an international consortium studying the experimental treatment.

Their first task is to identify a local partner and start recruiting up to 200 patients for the study, which is backed by 13 leading institutes including the World Health Organisation, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Oxford University and France's Institute Pasteur.

"Using antibodies contained in the blood of recovered patients is a well-established technique used for several other infectious diseases," said van Griensven.

"For Ebola it has been tried already, albeit on a very small scale. What we need now is a well-designed study according to high ethical and scientific standards to confirm it works and see if it can be scaled up."

The institute has plenty of field experience to draw on. While tackling a 1995 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), ITM researchers used blood transfusions to treat eight patients. Seven survived.

Blood from survivors has also been used in the United States to treat four people infected in the current outbreak. Three received plasma from Dr Kent Brantly, who himself was treated with the blood of a 14-year-old patient in Liberia.

Teresa Romero, the Spanish nursing assistant who contracted Ebola while treating an infected missionary in Madrid, was also given plasma from a survivor. Yesterday she said she would become a donor too. "If my blood works to cure people, I'm ready to give it to the last drop."

But Spanish doctors acknowledged they used so many different experimental treatments it was impossible to pinpoint which one led to her recovery.

The same problem applies to the other recent cases, and there remains no standard treatment beyond dealing with the individual symptoms.

Van Griensven's team is determined to prove conclusively whether the antibodies in the blood used by immune systems to fight Ebola can indeed cure other patients.

Their research will be divided into two parts: up to 200 patients will be given whole-blood transfusions or blood plasma in which the antibodies are extracted from the blood of the survivor.

The results will be compared with those for patients who receive the same level of care but no donor blood or plasma.

The WHO has said blood therapies offer the most promising chance of a short-term treatment.

First results are expected in March, and then in May.