The French MSF nurse infected with the Ebola virus would be treated with “Favipiravir”, a Japanese anti-influenza which is one of the experimental treatments authorized in France.
How is the first French woman infected with the Ebola virus treated? Repatriated to France from Liberia on the night of Thursday to Friday, we now know that she is being treated with a Japanese drug, Favipiravir or “T-705”. Information from the Directorate General of Health (DGS) relayed this Tuesday by the Medical Press Agency (APM)
Favipiravir: an antiviral against the flu
On this treatment, Dr Eric Leroy, Director of Research at IRD (1), within the joint research unit “Infectious diseases and vectors: ecology, genetics, evolution and control”, recently confided to why actor : “ Like the other experimental treatments authorized by the WHO (2), this is an interesting avenue. Toyama Chemical’s Favipiravir (T-705) is an active antiviral already known to fight influenza. It works against a specific enzyme that allows the Ebola virus to multiply. But with this product, we are very far from official approval and effectiveness as it has already demonstrated for influenza or other viruses. “
“This product has not even been tested in primates. The only test was done in vitro (on cell lines) and in a mouse model which had previously been made deficient in the interferon receptor. In short, “special” mice. But in these tests, the researchers noted an “effectiveness”. However, we are still very far from an experiment in humans, ”added this specialist in the Ebola virus.
Administration with tablets
However, despite this lack of data on the product, this experimental treatment is administered to the infected MSF nurse in West Africa. This is taken in the form of tablets, “which could in the future facilitate access to treatment in areas with limited medical infrastructure,” said the researcher.
Finally, the Japanese group that markets it said a few days ago that it had received requests from abroad and said it was “ready to respond to individual requests (from medical workers)”. A spokesperson had assured last August to have “sufficient reserves for more than 20,000 people.” “
A French trial on Favipiravir in November in Guinea
In addition, the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) has just announced that it will test the Japanese antiviral Favipiravir (Avigan). The therapeutic trial should be carried out from the beginning of November on around sixty patients in Guinea, said Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who heads the Institute of microbiology and infectious diseases at Inserm, in an interview published on Saturday in the daily The world.
“We will look at how this molecule is tolerated in humans at high doses, if it has an effect on the viral load and on mortality,” he added.
(1) The Development Research Institute
(2) World Health Organization
.
