Day: August 19, 2022

The World Health Organization says clinical evidence shows two monoclonal antibody treatments are effective at saving the lives of many people stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.

The action follows a systematic review and analysis of randomized clinical trials of therapeutics for the disease.

WHO Team Lead for Clinical Care Janet Diaz says the evidence underpinning the recommendations comes from two clinical trials. The largest was done in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and 2019.

She says the trials were conducted during Ebola outbreaks, demonstrating quality control trials can be done even under the most difficult circumstances.

“The evidence synthesis that informs this guideline shows that mAb114 and Regeneron-EB3 reduced mortality. The relative risk reduction was about 60 percent…Between 230 to 400 lives saved per 1,000 patients. Translate that into the number needed to treat, you treat two to four patients, and you save one life.”

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is spread through blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died of the disease. The worst Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Of the nearly 29,000 reported cases, more than 11,300 people died.

Diaz calls the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics a very important advancement. However, she notes the drug itself is not the only solution. She says it must be given in a comprehensive, clinical setting along with other treatments.

“That includes early diagnosis so that treatments can be given as soon as possible and also the implementation of appropriate infection prevention and control to stop transmission…and treatment of co-infections and access to nutrition, psycho-social support, and, of course, access to care after discharge.”

Diaz says the two recommended therapeutics have shown clear benefits for people of all ages. She says they can be used on all patients confirmed positive for Ebola virus disease. That, she says, includes older people, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, and babies born to mothers with confirmed Ebola within the first seven days after birth.

Source: Voice of America

Friends and fellow authors spoke out on Salman Rushdie’s behalf during a rally Friday on the steps of the main branch of the New York Public Library, one week after he was attacked onstage in the western part of the state and hospitalized with stab wounds.

Rushdie’s condition has improved, and, according to his literary agent, he has been removed from a ventilator.

Jeffrey Eugenides, Tina Brown and Kiran Desai were among those who shared wishes for a full recovery, told stories of Rushdie as an inspiration and defender of free expression, and read passages from his books, essays and speeches, including from The Satanic Verses, the 1988 novel that some Muslims condemned as blasphemous.

Rushdie spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 edict, a fatwa, calling for his death, but had traveled freely over the past two decades.

The hourlong “Stand With Salman” gathering was presented in part by the library, by Rushdie’s publisher, Penguin Random House, and by the literary and human rights organization PEN America. Hundreds were in attendance, many affiliated with PEN, of which the 75-year-old Rushdie is a former president.

‘Indefatigable champion’

“He’s been a constant, indefatigable champion of words and of writers attacked for the purported crime of their work,” said the day’s first speaker, PEN CEO Suzanne Nossel. “Today, we will celebrate Salman for what he has endured, but even more importantly, because of what he has engendered — the stories, characters, metaphors and images he has given to the world.”

The rally did not include any new words from Rushdie, but Nossel said Rushdie was aware of the event and even made suggestions for what to read. Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie, who has been with his father, tweeted that “it was great to see a crowd gathered” outside the library.

“Stand With Salman” took place the day after a judge in Mayville, New York, denied bail to Hadi Matar, 24, who has pleaded not guilty of attempted murder and assault. While in jail, Matar told the New York Post that he disdained Rushdie as anti-Muslim and expressed admiration for the ayatollah.

On Friday, other readers included author and journalist Gay Talese, author and former PEN President Andrew Solomon, and poet-activist Reginald Dwayne Betts. Actor Aasif Mandvi read from Rushdie’s upcoming novel, Victory City, which he completed before the attack and includes the passage, “I myself am nothing now. All that remains is the city of words. Words are the only victors.”

Eugenides, whose novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex, remembered traveling to London in the early 1980s. Eugenides was 20 and Rushdie’s breakthrough novel, Midnight’s Children, had recently been published. He knew Rushdie lived there and decided he wanted to meet him. It was years before The Satanic Verses, and Eugenides found his name and address in the phone book.

“I took the tube out to his house. As it turned out, Salman wasn’t at home; he was in Italy, vacationing,” said Eugenides, who was greeted by Rushdie’s then-mother-in-law and left a note for the author.

“That was the world we used to live in,” Eugenides added.

Source: Voice of America