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Doctors treating Spencer will consider “literally any and all possible therapies that might be available,” including various experimental Ebola therapies or blood transfusions from survivors, Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and special adviser to de Blasio, said yesterday in a telephone interview.
“All bets are off with this,” Redlener said. “If it is necessary to save his life, if it is available, it will be tried.” In terms of experimental therapies, “I don’t know whether anything has
been started or not, although I am positive it has been under discussion.” In the meantime, the focus is on providing high-quality supportive care, he said.
Spencer, the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in New York, was in stable condition at an isolation unit at Bellevue, New York City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said yesterday at a briefing. Spencer was rushed to the hospital Oct. 23 after coming down with 100.3 fever. Tests later confirmed the virus.
Treatment So Far
Spencer was talking on the phone yesterday with family and friends, Bassett said. His treatment so far includes supporting his electrolytes and fluid balance, and carefully monitoring his vital signs, another official said at the briefing.An emergency medicine doctor at Columbia University-New York Presbyterian Hospital, Spencer worked with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea treating Ebola patients. He returned Oct. 17 to New York.
“It is not likely” that Spencer will be transferred to another hospital with more experience treating Ebola patients, Redlener said. In addition to help from experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the team at Bellevue is getting advice from at least two of the other U.S. hospitals with experience treating Ebola patients successfully, he said.
A variety of experimental drugs have already been tried on other Ebola patients during the current outbreak. None of the drugs have been tested for efficacy against the virus in people, so their effectiveness isn’t clear. Companies working on treatments include Fujifilm Holdings Corp., Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. and Chimerix Inc.
Experimental Drugs
ZMapp, a cocktail of three antibodies from San Diego-based Mapp was used to treat two infected American health workers who recovered, a Spanish priest who died, and health-care workers in West Africa. Its supply was exhausted in August, and various efforts are under way to make more.TKM-Ebola from Vancouver-based Tekmira was used to treat Rick Sacra, an American missionary doctor who recovered. And brincidofovir, made by Durham, North Carolina-based Chimerix was used to treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian patient who died in Texas, as well as Ashoka Mukpo, the American television cameraman who survived.
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