Letter to Liberian Ebola Task Force Regarding Truvada

Dear National Emergency Task Force on Ebola,

Again, I write to stress the urgent need to immediately test the HIV drug Truvada against Ebola disease. Truvada is a fifth-generation reverse transcriptase inhibitor drug. It is perhaps ten times as strong against HIV as the lamivudine Dr Gobee Logan claims he had great success with at his ETU in Liberia.

Retroviruses like HIV and Ebola require reverse transcriptase to replicate. If you suppress/fully inhibit reverse transcriptase, retroviruses stop multiplying. There is an excellent chance that Truvada will stop Ebola from replicating. However, it is not guaranteed. I guesstimate there is a minimum 50/50 chance this will work against Ebola. If it does work the effect should be extremely strong. If Truvada does work, combined with selenium it should help stop Ebola disease in its tracks. If it works, then anyone who comes to a treatment center during the early symptomatic phase of the disease should live. Those who come too late still may die.

Liberian National Ebola Command Center, 2014

The standard dose of Truvada for HIV disease is one 500mg tablet once a day. I suggest to test Truvada against Ebola, double that dose. Take one Truvada tablet twice a day. Truvada is relatively low in side effects and a 30-tablet bottle will last fifteen days for an Ebola patient. The cost for a bottle of Truvada may be in the range of $50 – $60, perhaps a bit lower. It can be obtained from Aspen pharmaceuticals in South Africa.

A clinical trial should be conducted with Truvada as soon as humanly possible. An easy protocol would be to put 20 or 30 patients on the standards therapy with selenium and/or aspirin and then another 20 or 30 patients on that same regimen plus two tablets of Truvada a day. Within five days you should tell if the Truvada is working or not.

My friend Dr Bernice Dahn just entered self-imposed quarantine. Please have a bottle of Truvada for her in case she may become sick. If you started a trial immediately you would already know results by  the time she might get sick. If you don’t have a trial – which would be tragic – she should still have this medication to take just in case she falls ill.

I hope President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been informed about the dire and immediate need to conduct this trial of reverse transcriptase inhibitors against Ebola. Liberia reacted quickly and has led the way for the region in finding the first effective treatment for Ebola – selenium. If Truvada is as effective as the scientific rationale suggests it should be, then Liberia will be leading the way to what could be called, “close to a cure” for Ebola virus disease.

A trial of Truvada would be quick, simple and cheap. Why would anyone oppose or delay potentially finding “close to a cure” for Ebola? History is being made in Liberia as we speak. Let us put this epidemic behind us and close this sad chapter as soon as possible.

It hurts efforts region-wide that Liberia is now using selenium to reduce the EBD mortality rate but Guinea and Sierra Leone still appear to be in the dark concerning the obvious benefits of using selenium. I have tried to inform those two countries through their ambassadors but someone from Liberia should liaison with their ministries of health to inform them of the “medical best practice” that you have adopted with the use of selenium. We must all tackle this problem together and knowledge of medical advances must be shared quickly.

From South Africa I can only wish you continued courage in your valiant struggle – the fight of our lives. I would be there with you if I could and hope to return soon to the battle against Ebola in Monrovia. May God bless you for your tireless efforts to win this battle.