Doctor with Ebola better tolerating treatment
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The American doctor who contracted Ebola while
working in Liberia appears to be better tolerating his experimental
treatments Monday, but his recovery remains uncertain.
The family of Dr. Rick Sacra said he was able to eat breakfast Monday
for the first time since arriving Friday at the Nebraska Medical Center
in Omaha.
The 51-year-old remains in stable condition. But his wife, Debbie,
said Sacra is more alert and that they had a half-hour conversation by
video conference Sunday.
"He hasn't been able to eat much since he got here, but he had some
toast and apple sauce," Debbie Sacra said Monday. "He also tolerated the
research drug well — better than he had the previous doses he was
given."
Rick Sacra, a doctor from Worcester, Massachusetts, spent 15 years
working at the Liberia hospital where he fell ill. He was practicing
family medicine in Liberia with the North Carolina-based charity SIM.
Authorities say roughly 2,100 people have died during the Ebola
outbreak in West Africa, but Ebola hasn't been confirmed as the cause of
all those deaths.
Sacra is being treated with an experimental drug that is different
than the one given to the two Americans treated for Ebola at Emory
University Hospital in Atlanta.
Sacra's doctors have refused to name the drug, but they say they've been consulting with experts on Ebola on his treatment.
Dr. Aneesh Mehta of Emory University in Atlanta, who helped care for
the first two American aid workers with Ebola, said Monday that it was
impossible to know if the experimental ZMapp they received worked.
But Mehta said Emory doctors have been advising other physicians that
some particular types of supportive care did seem to help. Those
included switching between different types of IV fluids to meet each
patient's specific electrolyte needs at the time. And giving
high-quality liquid nutrition to boost their levels of protein and other
nutrients "to help build back that immune system that was under
attack."
Mehta and other experts were discussing Ebola at the American Society for Microbiology meeting Monday.
Pharmaceutical companies are developing vaccines for Ebola and drugs
to help treat the virus, but they're not fully tested or readily
available yet.
Dr. Gary Kobinger of the Public Health Agency of Canada helped
pioneer the research that led to ZMapp, and he said the U.S.
manufacturer appears to be on track for a Phase 1 safety study early
next year, perhaps as early as January, although no drug is available
currently.
On the vaccine front, Kobinger said a Canadian-made candidate should be starting Phase 1 trials within weeks.
The World Health Organization has suggested turning to the blood of
Ebola survivors as an experimental treatment, and Sacra's doctors have
said they are considering that
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