. Dr Gobee Logan  says 13 out of his 15 patients survived

 

A desperate doctor in rural Liberia who resorted to treating his Ebola patients with a HIV drug claims the mortality rate at his clinic has dropped to just seven per cent.

 

Dr Gobee Logan told CNN he began treating patients at a clinic in Tubmanburg with the drug lamivudine in a bid to save his their lives.

 

Mr Logan says he has treated 15 Ebola victims with the drug so far – and 13 have survived, producing a mortality rate of seven per cent.

 

This figure is particularly low considering the 70 per cent mortality rate associated with the current outbreak.

 

Elizabeth Kundu, one of the 15 patients to receive lamivudine, says she is “feeling fine” after taking the medicine and will be discharged soon. The 23-year-old said: "They gave me medicine, and I'm feeling fine. We take it, and we can eat – we're feeling fine in our bodies."

 

Mr Logan told the network that in a situation as dire as the Ebola outbreak, he has to use “every brain cell possible” to try and save people’s lives.

 

He was inspired to treat patients with the drug after reading scientific journals showing HIV and Ebola replicate inside the body in a similar way.

 

"Ebola is a brainchild of HIV," he said. "It's a destructive strain of HIV."

 

The patients who survived received the drug within the first five days of being diagnosed with Ebola. The two patients that did not survive were administered lamivudine between five and eight days after becoming unwell.

 

"I'm sure that when [patients] present early, this medicine can help," Logan said. "I've proven it right in my centre.

 

"It's a matter of doing all that I can do as a doctor to save some people's lives."

 

Heather Saul

Independent