Democratic Republic of Congo has approved four more experimental treatments against the deadly Ebola virus, the health ministry said as it raced to contain an outbreak in its violence-torn east. Health authorities last week started administering the US-developed mAb114 treatment to Ebola patients, the first time such a treatment had been used against an active outbreak.
The health ministry said in a daily bulletin late on Tuesday that the 10 patients who received mAb114 since August 11 have experienced a "positive evolution", but the outbreak has continued to grow.
The four additional treatments approved by Congo's ethics committee are Remdesivir, made by Israel's Gilead Sciences ; ZMapp, an intravenous treatment made by San Diego's Mapp Pharmaceutical; Japanese drug Favipiravir; and one referred to as Regn3450 - 3471 - 3479.
Remdesivir was administered to its first patient in the town of Beni on Tuesday, who is doing well, the ministry said in its bulletin.
Six new cases and four new deaths have been confirmed from the haemmorhagic fever, which causes vomiting and severe diarrhoea, the ministry said.
That brings the total number of deaths to 59 and confirmed cases to 75 since last month.
The Central African country has experienced ten Ebola outbreaks since the virus was discovered in northern Congo in 1976 - more than twice as many as any other country - and 33 people died in a flare-up in the northwest that ended last month.
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