While as a society we’re still debating whether or not Ebola will become a full scale epidemic, it’s nice to know that there are technologies already in existence that may be able to treat infected patients. We’ve written in the past of the Hemopurifier, a device from Aethlon Medical (San Diego, CA) that’s capable of filtering blood of impurities like viruses and exosomes that are related to tumor growth. Now we learn that the Hemopurifier is being used to filter the blood of a Ugandan doctor in Germany who contracted Ebola while on a WHO mission in Sierra Leone. The device can be used with standard dialysis and continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) machines and doesn’t require any special hardware upgrades.
There is no word yet on how the patient is responding to this treatment, but the company claims that the Hemopurifier should help the patient by controlling the spread and replication of the viral load while also removing glycoproteins that are released that overwhelm the immune system. The doctors at the Frankfurt University Hospital promise to release news about the patient as soon as they have more concrete information on his status.
More from Aethlon Medical:
Aethlon further disclosed that it is preparing to initiate U.S. clinical studies of Hemopurifier therapy based on the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) that was previously submitted by the Company. The study will contribute safety data to advance the device as a broad-spectrum countermeasure against pandemic threats, including ebola and chronic viral pathogens such as HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV).
To date, Hemopurifier therapy has been successfully administered in approximately one hundred treatment experiences in health compromised HIV and HCV infected individuals. These studies were conducted at the Apollo Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Sigma New Life Hospital, and the Medanta Medicity Institute, all located in India. In vitro validation studies that demonstrated the ability of the Hemopurifier to capture Zaire and other strains of ebola virus were conducted by researchers at the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Flashbacks: Hemopurifier to be Studied as Treatment Option for Hepatitis C…; Aethlon’s Hemopurifier Proven Effective Against Metastatic Melanoma; Hemopurifier to Treat Infectious Disease…
Product page: Aethlon Hemopurifier…