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Oxford University Press (OUP), The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2(220), p. 195-202, 2019

DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiz078

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Laboratory Findings, Compassionate Use of Favipiravir, and Outcome in Patients With Ebola Virus Disease, Guinea, 2015—A Retrospective Observational Study

Journal article published in 2019 by Romy Kerber, Eva Lorenz ORCID, Sophie Duraffour, Daouda Sissoko, Martin Rudolf, Anna Jaeger, Sekou Ditinn Cisse, Alseny-Modet Camara, Osvaldo Miranda, Carlos M. Castro, Joseph Akoi Bore, Fara Raymond Koundouno, Johanna Repits, Babak Afrough, Beate Becker-Ziaja and other authors.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Abstract Background In 2015, the laboratory at the Ebola treatment center in Coyah, Guinea, confirmed Ebola virus disease (EVD) in 286 patients. The cycle threshold (Ct) of an Ebola virus–specific reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction assay and 13 blood chemistry parameters were measured on admission and during hospitalization. Favipiravir treatment was offered to patients with EVD on a compassionate-use basis. Methods To reduce biases in the raw field data, we carefully selected 163 of 286 patients with EVD for a retrospective study to assess associations between potential risk factors, alterations in blood chemistry findings, favipiravir treatment, and outcome. Results The case-fatality rate in favipiravir-treated patients was lower than in untreated patients (42.5% [31 of 73] vs 57.8% [52 of 90]; P = .053 by univariate analysis). In multivariate regression analysis, a higher Ct and a younger age were associated with survival (P < .001), while favipiravir treatment showed no statistically significant effect (P = .11). However, Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated a longer survival time in the favipiravir-treated group (P = .015). The study also showed characteristic changes in blood chemistry findings in patients who died, compared with survivors. Conclusions Consistent with the JIKI trial, this retrospective study revealed a trend toward improved survival in favipiravir- treated patients; however, the effect of treatment was not statistically significant, except for its influence on survival time.