Hope of cure as Ebola crosses another border

THE West African state of Senegal has became the fifth country to be hit by the world's worst Ebola outbreak and riots broke out in neighbouring Guinea's remote southeast where infection rates are rising fast - even as scientists reported that a treatment for the virus may have been found.

The experimental drug ZMapp cured 100% of monkeys with the disease. It is being used to treat infected patients, including William Pooley, a British nurse being cared for at the Royal Free Hospital in London after contracting the disease in Sierra Leone.

In Liberia, two African healthcare workers treated with ZMapp were due to be released from hospital yesterday after making a full recovery.

Health experts were unsure how effective the treatment was because no trials on humans have been done, but 18 rhesus monkeys infected with the disease made a complete recovery after being given ZMapp. Three animals that were untreated became seriously ill and died.

Experts said the results were "extremely encouraging" and "better than expected", and the scientist who discovered Ebola in 1976 called for clinical trials to begin.

"This well-designed trial in nonhuman primates provides the most convincing evidence to date that ZMapp may be an effective treatment of Ebola infection in humans," said Professor Peter Piot of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

ZMapp is a blend of three laboratory-made antibodies that neutralise the virus.

Senegal's first Ebola case is a student from Guinea.

Senegalese Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck said the man turned up for treatment at a hospital in Dakar, the capital, on Tuesday, concealing the fact that he had had close contact with victims in his home country.

"We are tracing his whole itinerary and also identifying anyone who had contact with the patient, who, now that he has been diagnosed, is much more co-operative," she said.

A Health Ministry official, who asked not to be named, said the 21-year-old crossed into Senegal via its southern border with Guinea and had been living in the densely populated Dakar suburb of Parcelles Assainies for weeks. He added that the man appeared to have a good chance of recovering.

The man had been under surveillance by health authorities in Guinea because of his contact with Ebola victims, but he escaped to Senegal, said Seck.

In an attempt last week to prevent the spread of the virus, Senegal banned flights to and from three of the affected countries and shut its land border with Guinea. It also refused to give clearance for UN aid flights to Ebola-hit countries.

In the latest sign that the outbreak of the virus, which has already killed at least 1550 people, was spinning out of control, the World Health Organisation said that Ebola cases rose last week at the fastest pace since the epidemic began in West Africa in March.

It said on Thursday that the actual number of Ebola cases could be up to four times higher than reported and that 20000 people in total could be infected before the outbreak ends.

The epidemic has defied efforts by governments to control it, prompting the leading charity fighting the outbreak, Doctors Without Borders, to call for the UN Security Council to take charge of efforts to stop it.

Including the fatalities, more than 3000 have been infected since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March and quickly spread across borders to Liberia and Sierra Leone. It has also touched Nigeria, where six people have died.

Suspicion of healthcare workers has dogged government responses to the Ebola outbreak across West Africa. Frightened by the sight of healthcare workers clad from head to toe in plastic protective gear and protective masks, many locals have shunned their assistance, often preferring to die in their own homes.

More than 120 healthcare workers have died in the epidemic.