不可思議！艾滋病藥救回埃博拉病患
A doctor who was used anti-HIV medication to treat Ebola out of desperation after being inundated with patients, has reported positive results.
Dr Gobee Logan gave the drug lamivudine to 15 Ebola patients in a clinic in Tubmanburg, and 13 survived.
This gives patients treated with lamivudine a 7% mortality rate, whereas overall mortality rates for those infected are 70%.
"My stomach was hurting; I was feeling weak; I was vomiting," Ebola patient Elizabeth Kundu, 23, told CNN. "They gave me medicine, and I'm feeling fine. We take it, and we can eat – we're feeling fine in our bodies."
Those patients who survived after taking lamivudine, took the medication during the first five days of infection. The two who died started treatment five and eight days after onset of the illness.
"I'm sure that when [patients] present early, this medicine can help," Logan said. "I've proven it right in my center."
Logan said that he was aware that the medical establishment would remain sceptical until research had been undertaken involving a much larger group of patients, half of whom would be given lamivudine, and the other half a placebo.
"Our people are dying and you're taking about studies?" he said. "It's a matter of doing all that I can do as a doctor to save some people's lives."
He said that he decided to try using lamivudine after reading in a medical journal that HIV and Ebola replicates in the body in similar ways.
Initially Logan tried the drug on a colleague who had become infected, and within two days he showed signs of improvement and survived.
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN that they would be willing to carry out follow-up tests.
The World Health Organisation said that experimental use of two trial Ebola vaccines developed by GlaxoSmithKline and NewLink has begun.據美國有線電視新聞網9月27日報道，埃博拉疫情持續肆虐，病人之多已遠超醫院負荷，感染人數仍在不斷攀升，援助和疫苗也遲遲不見蹤影，絕望之中，利比里亞一醫生“兵行險着”，啓用抗HIV藥物進行治療，不料竟獲奇效。
在杜伯曼堡的一家隔離中心，醫生洛根讓診所內的埃博拉感染者服用了治療艾滋病的藥物拉米夫定，結果15人中13人生還，死亡率從原來的70%下降至了7%。
病人伊麗莎白說：“原本胃痛得厲害，感覺很虛弱，不停地吐。吃過藥以後覺得有所好轉，現在已經可以進食了。”
據瞭解，生還病人在感染後的5天內服用了拉米夫定，而不治的兩人在服用藥物時已感染了5到8天。洛根表示，如果病人及早就醫，藥物就能更好地發揮作用，“至少我的病人已經證明了拉米夫定是有效的”。
但他同時表示，醫療機構對此療法可能仍抱懷疑態度，只有在對大批病人進行隨機對照試驗後，纔會轉變看法。他說：“我們的病人都快死了，還討論研究？我是個醫生，要做的就是盡力多救幾個人。”
洛根的靈感來源於醫學雜誌上的一篇文章，文章稱，埃博拉病毒在人體內的複製過程和HIV病毒頗爲相似，他由此產生了“用抗HIV藥物治療”的大膽想法。起初，他在染病同事身上“試藥”，兩天不到，該同事就顯示出了好轉的跡象。
美國國家過敏和傳染病研究所的研究人員表示“願意開展跟進測試”。疫苗方面，雖進展緩慢但總算也傳來了好消息，製藥商NewLink Genetics和葛蘭素史克的兩種試驗性埃博拉疫苗已進入臨牀試驗階段。
