Acne drug seen to provide cure for Japanese encephalitis in limited trials
Weeks after several children died of encephalitis-related complications at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, Gorakhpur, the Centre is looking to introduce a new drug, traditionally used for acne, to deal with the seasonal outbreaks of acute encephalitis.
Last year the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the drug did not appear potent enough to merit being immediately rolled out as a standard treatment for treating patients afflicted with the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus.
In 2008, researchers at the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar found that minocycline — an antibiotic typically used to treat severe acne — surprisingly seemed to cure rats infected with the JE virus.
Independent teams of doctors and researchers between 2008 and 2013 have conducted trials on patients and have concluded, that minocycline worked well on patients with AES symptoms, who survived the first day of hospitalisation. According to the studies the drug did not measurably protect patients beyond three months.
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