[NYTimes] Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases gave the drugs, ribavirin and interferon, to half of six rhesus monkeys eight hours after they were infected with the virus, now known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus.The three that got the two-drug cocktail had less virus in their blood, no breathing difficulties and only minimal X-ray evidence of pneumonia, while the untreated animals became very ill, said the authors of the study published by Nature Medicine.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the institute's director, called the study "not a game changer, but an important observation."
Dr. Ziad A. Memish, the deputy health minister of Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, where most of the known MERS cases have occurred, said doctors there had already tried the two-drug combination on patients. It did not work well, he said, but that might have been because it was started late, when patients were hospitalized and already severely ill.
"This is great news and much-needed information, although it's very preliminary," he said.
| A bird in the hand being better than two in the bush, as it were, |
According to the World Health Organization, there have been 108 known human cases of MERS since it emerged in 2012, of which 50 have been fatal.