But it is possible that these workers might be randomized into a placebo only arm of a current trial, looking for effective measures against Bundibugyo. Here is the latest, from across the pond:
. . .Two leading doctors have “stepped back” from long-held positions with the World Health Organization amid a row over the ethics of an Ebola drug trial underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The randomised control trial, called Ebo-Pep, is testing whether an experimental antiviral is an effective post-exposure treatment.
But experts believe the study’s design puts healthcare workers on the frontline of the epidemic at risk, because it means medics exposed to Ebola might receive a placebo treatment. . . .
The Ebo-Pep trial began in mid-July. It is testing a drug called obeldesivir – an oral version of the antiviral remdesivir – to determine whether it offers protection for people who have been exposed to Ebola, but are yet to develop symptoms. . . .
Over the last decade, a status quo has also emerged where healthcare workers exposed to Ebola are immediately offered an antiviral treatment or monoclonal antibody, if it is available, in the hope of giving them the best possible chance of survival.
But if they are included in Ebo-Pep, their chance of receiving obeldesivir drops to 50 per cent.
Meanwhile any foreign doctor deployed to support the DRC will still be evacuated and offered an antiviral after a needlestick exposure -- three already have been in this outbreak -- creating an “unacceptable double standard. . . .”
I suppose front line health care workers ought to be allowed (in any event) to "opt in" to the trial -- and assume the risk (even if that creates unblinding problems), but this is -- as ever -- a vexing quandary, with trials in highly lethal viral outbreaks. We will keep an eye on it. Onward, resolutely.
नमस्ते
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