100th patient enrolled in PARTNERS trial to identify the first effective treatments for Bundibugyo ebolavirus disease
This milestone, reached just 12 weeks after the announcement of the outbreak, makes PARTNERS the fastest-ever randomised controlled trial of treatments for Ebola.
The PARTNERS trial has reached a major milestone, enrolling its 100th participant just 12 weeks after the Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak was announced.
The trial enrolled its first participant only seven weeks after the outbreak was declared and reached the 100-patient mark just five weeks later. This makes PARTNERS the fastest-ever randomised controlled trial of treatments for Ebola, both in the speed with which it was launched and in the pace of recruitment.
The participants are contributing to progress in the search for effective treatments for Bundibugyo ebolavirus disease, which has already claimed almost 2,000 lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The current trial is being led in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB). It is coordinated by the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and supported by the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, international partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). PARTNERS is sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Reaching 100 participants so rapidly highlights on the one hand the scale of the outbreak, but also the willingness of the patients, the extraordinary commitment of frontline clinical teams and the ability of the international partnership to mobilise at unprecedented speed. Every patient enrolled brings researchers closer to identifying life-saving treatments for this outbreak and strengthening preparedness for future filovirus epidemics.
