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Fighting Ebola In Urban Africa: Better Survival Chances?

Fighting Ebola In Urban Africa: Better Survival Chances?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6NJw6LMy2k

The ebola virus fatality rate is as high as 90 percent, but Canadian Dr. Tim Jagatic of Doctors Without Borders says he saw a survival rate of 50 percent in a group of patients in Conakry during the current West African outbreak, according to a Reuters interview on CNN.

Jagatic said he worked with 20 to 30 patients — granted a small sample size — and saw a 50 percent survival rate. This was not a scientifically significant sample size, he said. Still, Doctors Without Borders wants to spread the word.

“The message we were trying to get out and the results we’re seeing is that this in fact just a virus,” he said. “It’s a virus that the human body can create antibodies against and the method of treatment we provided was supportive therapy.

“If people have a fever we break it with paracetamol (over-the-counter acetaminophen for pain relief.) If they have diarrhea we treat it with fluids. We were doing everything we possibly could to allow the immune system to focus on that one disease and take away any complicating factors.

“We were seeing fairly good results with that and we really did try to get that message out and decrease stigmatization.”