4 ms·

In practical terms, there will be a resistance that develops eventually. Even though the reservoir is hypothesized to be bats, that doesn't have much significan

In practical terms, there will be a resistance that develops eventually. Even though the reservoir is hypothesized to be bats, that doesn't have much significance because of its ability spread from person to person without a vector. What is notable about Ebola is that its virulence keeps dropping while its ability to spread has significantly increased. The larger issue is that Ebola is in areas that don't have the resources to handle any serious outbreak. It's becoming more likely that Ebola is going to be self sustaining soon. I'm kind of amazed that a comment expressing interest in when this therapy will be obsolete, see that 96% of bacteria are resistant to Penicillin G now, gets a negative response. Drugs are only effective when the pathogen is still sensitive to them.

Dylan16807 7y ago
For a resistance to develop, ebola that has been exposed to the treatment inside a hospital has to escape back into the wild. There are significant barriers in the way of that. If everyone on penicillin was kept in an isolation chamber, the effectiveness over time would be different.
- Medicalidiot 7y ago
  As someone who works in a hospital, we can bleach every single patient room, wear all the PPE we want, but pathogens will always spread; the only question is when, not if. Even in an isolation chamber a resistance to penicillin would develop independently of each other as penicillin resistance is usually predicated on a mutation in the penicillin binding protein.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    Nothing's perfect, but ebola levels of paranoia drastically slow down any chance of spread. While partial resistance can be encouraged in a single person, that doesn't matter if it dies inside them. And if a resistance mutation happens in the wild, away from drugs, there's no reason to expect it to spread at all.
    - Medicalidiot 7y ago
      There's a significant amount of fake news around the Ebola outbreak epicenters, such as aid workers trying to take people's blood and other conspiracy theories. We have to keep in mind some of these places recently had a genocide and/or are generally unstable.

Dylan16807 7y ago

For a resistance to develop, ebola that has been exposed to the treatment inside a hospital has to escape back into the wild. There are significant barriers in the way of that. If everyone on penicillin was kept in an isolation chamber, the effectiveness over time would be different.

Medicalidiot 7y ago
As someone who works in a hospital, we can bleach every single patient room, wear all the PPE we want, but pathogens will always spread; the only question is when, not if. Even in an isolation chamber a resistance to penicillin would develop independently of each other as penicillin resistance is usually predicated on a mutation in the penicillin binding protein.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  Nothing's perfect, but ebola levels of paranoia drastically slow down any chance of spread. While partial resistance can be encouraged in a single person, that doesn't matter if it dies inside them. And if a resistance mutation happens in the wild, away from drugs, there's no reason to expect it to spread at all.
  - Medicalidiot 7y ago
    There's a significant amount of fake news around the Ebola outbreak epicenters, such as aid workers trying to take people's blood and other conspiracy theories. We have to keep in mind some of these places recently had a genocide and/or are generally unstable.