Selenium and Asacol Against Ebola

  Selenium supplements (sodium–selenite) used alone at 1-2 mg per day repeatedly have been shown to reduce hemorrhagic fever mortality rates by an average of approximately 60%.

In a trial of 1.2 mg of sodium-selenite a day at an Ebola treatment unit (ETU) in Liberia, selenium increases survival rates from 44% to 68% - a 54.4% improvement. If the correct dose of 2.0 mg had been used survival should have increased to 75%. In a small test in Sierra Leone 1.6 mg of selenium a day helped patients feel better after one day and stronger after two days. It saved the first two patients treated including a 60-year-old man who should have died.     

 In a controlled clinical trial of selenium supplements treating epidemic hemorrhagic fever [EHF], Chinese       doctors used 2mg selenium per day to treat EHF. In fulminate cases the mortality rate fell from 100% to           37.6%. In all cases mortality fell from 38% to 7%.  

In an outbreak of Marburg virus in northern Angola, German doctors treated fulminate cases with 1mg selenium per day. The mortality rate was zero compared to the anticipated 100%.

Ebola virus causes Ebola virus disease by disrupting and damaging the immune system and the antioxidant balance of the body. It does this by rapidly depleting selenium from the body.

Selenium (Se) is the keystone element of the immune system and the most important antioxidant in the body. It forms the active site of the universal antioxidant glutathione-peroxidase (GPx) that protects cells from oxidative damage.

The Ebola virus genetically encodes selenoproteins that require an unusually high number of selenium atoms. Ebola viruses take the selenium they need to replicate from human cells and in the process damage and destroy those cells.

Ebola virus has an extremely high replication rate, using up selenium at an alarming rate. It rapidly drains the body of its selenium reserves – especially from the organs and cells of the immune system, such as the liver and kidneys, that contain a higher level of selenium then most human cells.

Loss of selenium causes blood clots to form in the major blood vessels, and peroxidation – oxidative damage that creates small holes in the blood vessels and capillaries. This causes hemorrhaging.

Both Selenium and Asacol (5-ASA) a sister drug to aspirin that does not prevent clotting are very strong antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. They both reduce pain, fever and viral replication.

Selenium is a broad spectrum anti-viral nutrient that at high doses – as recommended here - acts like a drug. Selenium inhibits viral replication. It acts as a nuclear factor-kappa binding (NF-kB) inhibitor, as a reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RTI), and it inhibits tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a). Selenium significantly boosts immunity and increases CD4 count on a long-term basis.

Asacol is also a broad spectrum anti-viral drug. It acts as an NF-kB inhibitor and reduces TNF-a. By itself Asacol proved to reduce HIV replication 70% as effectively as AZT. It increases CD4 count almost twice as much as AZT and keeps the CD4 count above baseline twice as long as AZT. 

With or without Asacol, selenium should have a major impact in reducing mortality in EVD. A reduction in mortality should significantly reduce the spread of Ebola virus disease.

The ideal combination of selenium and Asacol to treat Ebola may be ten 200 mcg selenium tablets plus two 300 mg tablets of Asacol four times daily. This costs about $8 per patient.

As a prophylactic precaution, those working in healthcare or anyone who might be exposed to the virus may take 1-3 tablets of 200 mcg selenium per day in order to increase immunity to viral infection and potentially reduce the initial severity of infection if it occurs.

Almost all other viral infections including HIV, herpes, hepatitis, influenza, Lassa fever and Kaposi sarcoma may also be treated with a combination of Asacol or aspirin and selenium – the required dose of selenium depends on the severity of the disease.