Health Highlights: Aug. 27, 2018

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Two Ebola Patients Who Received Experimental Treatment Have Recovered: Congo Officials

Two of the first 10 people to receive an experimental Ebola treatment have recovered from the highly dangerous disease, Congo’s health ministry says.

The patients received a treatment called mAb114, which was isolated from a survivor of an Ebola outbreak in 1995. It was the first of five experimental treatments Congo approved for use in a new outbreak that was declared on Aug. 1, the Associated Press reported.

The other experimental treatments are ZMapp, Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Regn3450 – 3471 – 3479.

More than 3,400 people have received an experimental Ebola vaccine in this outbreak.

On Saturday, the head of the World Health Organization praised Congo officials for making the experimental treatments available, calling it “a global first, and a ray of hope for people with the disease,” the AP reported.

To date, there have been 79 confirmed cases in the outbreak, including 42 deaths and 14 patients who have recovered. There are another 28 probable cases.

This is Congo’s tenth Ebola outbreak. The disease can be fatal in up to 90 percent of cases, depending on the strain.

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Former CDC Head Charged With Sex Abuse

Dr. Thomas Frieden, who headed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years, was arrested on sex abuse charges in Brooklyn on Friday.

The charges, which include forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment, stem from an October 2017 incident in his home, where he allegedly groped a woman, NBC News reported. The woman reported the incident in July.

From 2009 to 2017, Frieden shepherded the CDC through the Ebola epidemic and an outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. He was also New York City Health Commissioner from 2002 and 2009, NBC News reported. He resigned from the agency in January 2017. He now serves as president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health non-profit.

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