The first news leaked on favipiravir for Ebola seem to indicate that the drug appears to have had a positive effect on some patients. The same researchers who are conducting the study in Guinea, however, are very skeptical and expressed the need for more information about the effectiveness of the treatment; the interpretation of the data is complex because the study lacks a control group with which to compare the results obtained. All patients, in fact, given the high mortality rate of the virus, received treatment. Favipiravir is a flu drug that blocks viral replication by interfering with the replication of the genome. Approved in Japan last year, is currently been tested on 69 patients over the age of fourteen, but studies are obviously still ongoing. Preliminary data suggest that manages to halve mortality in patients with Ebola as 50%, but only if the viral load is low.