Post-exposure prophylaxis following high-risk contact with Ebola virus, using immunotherapies with monoclonal antibodies, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: an emergency use program

Abstract

Introduction: With the development of therapeutics and vaccine against Ebola virus disease (EVD), the question of post-exposure prophylaxis for high-risk contact has emerged. Immunotherapies (monoclonal antibodies [mAbs]) recently validated for treating infected patients appear to be a good candidate for protecting contacts.

Design: During the tenth EVD outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have administrated mAbs (Mab114 or REGN-EB3) to high and intermediate-risk contacts of EVD patients.

Results: Overall, 23 non-vaccinated contacts received mAbs after a median delay between contact and post-exposure prophylaxis of 1 day (interquartile range 1-2). All contacts were free of symptoms, and all had negative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction 14 days after the contact.

Conclusion: Immunotherapies appear to be promising candidates to protect EVD contacts. Interaction with vaccine needs to be analyzed and a larger study on efficacy conducted.

Keywords: Ebola virus disease; monoclonal antibodies; post-exposure prophylaxis.