Breakthrough trial shows Ebola is now curable

Scientists say Ebola is no longer an incurable disease – after a trial of two drugs in the Democratic Republic of Congo put survival rates at 90 percent.

A patient is vaccinated at a health center in Goma, in the DRC. REUTERS/Djaffer Sabiti

Four experimental drugs were used in an unprecedented clinical trial in the DRC, where Ebola has killed nearly 1,900 people over the past year.

Two of the drugs – Regeneron's REGN-EB3 and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 – were developed using antibodies harvested from Ebola survivors.

Here's some good news: Doctors and scientists have finally found a way to cure Ebola. Here's how it works: https://t.co/hg4AlN2R79

  WIRED (@WIRED) August 12, 2019

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The 90 percent survival rate was for people who received the drugs shortly after being infected, when levels of the virus in their blood were low.

Researchers are to make the treatments available to anyone in the DRC infected with the virus.

The trial’s co-sponsor, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the results were "very good news".