Ebola Patients Given ZMapp in Liberia Show Positive Signs of Recovery

According to CNN : Three health care workers who were given the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp in Liberia have shown “very positive signs of recovery,” the Liberian Ministry of Health said Tuesday. Medical professionals treating the workers have called their progress “remarkable.”

The good news comes as the number of deaths from the outbreak in West Africa climbed to 1,229, according to the World Health Organization. The Liberian government also reported that all 17 patients who fled a local clinic after it was attacked earlier this week have been accounted for. Those who tested positive for Ebola are now being treated at another medical center.

The government met with local community leaders and concluded the attack stemmed from a misunderstanding; locals thought the clinic was “importing Ebola victims from the rest of the country,” according to health officials. Looters who took a generator, mattresses and critical medical supplies have promised to return the items.

There are other small signs of hope amid the largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history. WHO has seen “encouraging signs” from Nigeria and Guinea that positive action can rein in the deadly disease. The current outbreak began in December. The situation in Lagos, Nigeria, where the country’s first case was detected in July, “looks reassuring,” WHO said Tuesday.

“At present, the city’s 12 confirmed cases are all part of a single chain of transmission. Those infected by the initial case include medical staff involved in his treatment, a patient in the same hospital, and a protocol officer in very close contact with the patient,” the organization said.

No one on the same flight as the man who carried the infection into the country on July 20 was infected, despite him vomiting frequently on the flight and on arrival, it said. The man died July 25 and the 21-day incubation period has now passed, the WHO said.

Intensive efforts to track those at risk have not turned up any new cases outside the 12 identified. One of those 12 has made a full recovery, the WHO said, which “counters the widespread perception that infection with the Ebola virus is invariably a death sentence.” Evidence suggests early detection and therapy can help people survive, it said.