Thai hospital claims to have developed antibody treatment for Ebola

Bangkok: A Thai hospital on Monday claimed to have successfully developed an “antibody treatment” against the dreaded Ebola virus that has killed over 3,000 people in West Africa this year. In a brief announcement, Siriraj Hospital at Mahidol University said doctors have developed “the successful production of an antibody treatment against Ebola for the first time in Thailand,” Bangkok Post online reported today. [caption id=“attachment_1736049” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image.[/caption] It is not clear what exactly the hospital has to offer. While a government-run website proclaimed it a “cure” for the disease, other reports said it was a preventative vaccine. It could mean the hospital’s development of antibodies could lead to a treatment applied after infection to stimulate the body’s natural immune system to fight off infection, the report said. Dr Pattarachai Kiratisin, head of the faculty’s microbiology department declined to elaborate on the findings. The doctors, however, told a local media source that researchers have not imported the dangerous Ebola virus into Thailand to develop the treatment. Instead, they used less-virulent viruses that produce similar hemorrhagic fevers, it said. Ebola is a disease of humans and other primates caused by an ebola virus and its symptoms - fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches - start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus. PTI