[ti:Two Experimental Drugs Found Effective Against Ebola Virus] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.01]International health officials say two experimental drugs used to treat Ebola infections appear to be saving lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). [00:15.06]Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) called the early results "some very good news." [00:27.19]He said the new drugs "...may be able to improve the survival of people with Ebola." [00:36.17]The NIH helped support the research. [00:41.77]The findings come from a study of four different drugs that started in November of last year. [00:51.22]But an independent monitoring group recommended last week that the study be ended early. [00:59.97]The group recommended that all new patients should receive either of the two drugs that showed the best results. [01:10.26]The drugs are antibodies that work by blocking the virus in the body. [01:17.81]One drug, REGN-EB3, is made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. [01:27.88]The other, mAb114, was developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). [01:37.26]Patients receiving these two drugs "had a greater chance of survival compared to those" receiving the other two drugs, the group found. [01:50.96]An experimental vaccine is also showing signs of effectiveness against the virus. [02:00.81]The research was designed to test the effectiveness of the drugs on as many as 725 people infected with the Ebola virus in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. [02:19.08]An outbreak of Ebola in those parts of the DRC has killed more than 1,800 people since August 2018. [02:32.60]Ebola, a kind of hemorrhagic fever, has a very high rate of mortality. [02:41.05]Dr. Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization said about 75 percent of those who become infected and receive no special care die. [02:56.42]But the recent study found that less than one-third of patients who were infected died when they took the two new drugs. [03:08.22]Those patients who had low levels of the virus in their blood had even better results. [03:17.39]Among people who sought treatment early, the mortality rate was 6 percent for REGN-EB3 and the rate for mAb114 was 11 percent. [03:34.80]Dr. Ryan of the WHO said he hoped the results would persuade more patients to seek care as soon as symptoms appear. [03:48.13]"Getting people into care more quickly is absolutely vital," he said. [03:55.28]However, treating the disease is made more difficult because the affected areas of the eastern DRC face ethnic conflict. [04:07.68]Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in DRC, helped lead the study. [04:19.73]He said, "From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable." [04:28.35]I'm Mario Ritter Jr. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM