How Guinea Found the Best Way to Survive Ebola

TIME MAGAZINE                                         Nov. 5, 2014

by Alice Park

As the world waits for new treatrments and a vaccine. doctors in Guinea have found the best way to help patients survive Ebola.

... from the tragic illness and mortality emerge some important lessons from the region.The latest, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, details the cases that first appeared in Guinea’s capital city of Conakry between March and April. Unlike in other parts of the region, where the mortality rate from Ebola averages around 60% to 70%, in Conakry it has remained around 43%.

Why? As Dr. Robert Fowler, a clinician in pandemic and epidemic diseases with the World Health Organization (WHO) and physician at the University of Toronto, explains, Guinea’s first Ebola treatment center, established in the capital, took a very aggressive approach to handling patients. Working with the humanitarian aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, the WHO and the country’s Ministry of Health set up a facility where Ebola patients were immediately hooked up to IV fluids and treated for dehydration—often a complication of infection.

They were also monitored regularly for changes in their blood chemicals, including the electrolytes that are a marker for whether the body’s cells are getting enough water and nutrients to function. While routine blood work is standard practice at every hospital in developed nations, such testing wasn’t at Conakry health facilities.

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http://time.com/3559256/ebola-guinea-iv-fluids/

Link to study in NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1411249?query=featured_home