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Ebola survivors may hold key to wiping out all viral diseases

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Ebola survivors may hold key to wiping out all viral diseases Empty Ebola survivors may hold key to wiping out all viral diseases

Post by Ben Reilly Thu Jul 02, 2015 12:01 am

Past Ebola outbreaks killed as many as 90 percent of the people who got the disease. This most recent one did not—as many as 60 percent of infected people survived. Nobody is sure why. It might have had something to do with the particular strain of the germ; for example few people bled from their eyeballs this time. Or maybe it had to do with the better standard of care many of the infected received.

Regardless, thousands of people got sick but didn’t die. By definition their immune systems now make antibodies to the virus, proteins that can fight Ebola and win. Those antibodies are, essentially, the ideal medicine. Or rather they would be, if someone could unpack the biochemical manufacturing process that creates them.

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/ebola-treatment/

Long read, but really interesting.
Ben Reilly
Ben Reilly
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