WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Researchers have managed to cure 100 percent of guinea pigs and rhesus monkeys in late stages of infection with lethal levels of Marburg and Ravn viruses, close relatives of Ebola, the National Institutes of Health announced in a press release on Wednesday.
"Although the Marburg and Ravn viruses are less familiar than Ebola virus, both can resemble Ebola in symptoms and outcomes in people, and both lack preventive and therapeutic countermeasures," the release stated.
The study involved giving the animals monoclonal antibodies that were derived from a person who survived Marburg disease and reproduced in laboratory cultures.
The researchers are preparing additional safety tests that are needed before human clinical studies of monoclonal antibody treatment can begin, the release noted.
The 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed an estimated 11,300 people.
