By Emma Farge DAKAR (Reuters) - A Japanese anti-Ebola drug being tested in Guinea should be made available across West Africa after initial trials showed it halved mortality rates in some patients, the medical charity administering it said. Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), which ran the trials of favipiravir in Guinea, said mortality rates fell from 30 to 15 percent in patients with a low to moderate Ebola count but was not effective on those with a high level of the virus. The level of the Ebola virus in a patient's blood is thought to be determined by the amount of time since infection as well as age and genetics. "We think this is a sufficiently encouraging sign for it to be made available to Ebola patients more widely," said Augustin Augier, secretary general of ALIMA, which runs the treatment centre in Nzerekore, in southeast Guinea.
via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News http://ift.tt/1w5IOXC
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