• Question: Will ebola ever be cured?

    Asked by The Undertaker to Carmen, Steph, Noel, Laura, Daniel on 8 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Thaadsa, Sofia Masiello.
    • Photo: Carmen Denman

      Carmen Denman answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      Hi Updog,

      Great question. We have vaccines these days for a lot of nasty viruses and bacteria. This is great news. But, even though we have vaccines for certain diseases, doesn’t mean we have gotten rid of a disease. So, if you are asking will we ever ‘eradicate’ Ebola, I am not sure. Humans are smart and scientist work long hours, but viruses are pretty smart and can mutate quickly.

      If your question is more along the lines of ‘can we cure someone if they become sick with Ebola and make them better’ I think with a lot of the new drugs that are being developed and pushed through quickly in the drug develpoment pipeline, we may have better treatments to offer people soon. These treatments must be ‘antivirals’ that can halt the virus from replicating and making patients sick.

      Overall, to me, the real issue is finding a protective vaccine that is safe to use rather than a cure. If we have a vaccine, the virus is not scary at all anymore, because we are protected by what our immune system has learned from the vaccination.

      Cheers!
      Carmen

Comments