ZMapp helps your body to map your cure. This experimental Ebola drug recently helped 18 apes infected with the deadly virus to heal.

The good news has spread, but it may take time to catch on.

How did the trial rhesus macaques react? First, they were infected with the virus, and then, just a few days later, once they looked ill with Ebola, they were given the drug, ZMapp. It seemed to do the trick!

Six more monkeys were given a different version of ZMapp three days after infection. It protected all six.

Will the wonder drug do the trick on humans? No one fully knows yet. It may work, but how well will it work? An infected patient can take up to 21 days to show symptoms.

ZMapp' three antibodies attach to cells infected with Ebola, helping the immune system to kill them.

Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., of San Diego, which supplied the drug, reports that the supply is exhausted, and it will take many more months for make new samples. It comes from tobacco plants and was developed with US government support. In one month, it is possible to develop up to 40 doses of the drug in a plant that is situated in Kentucky.

ZMapp's details were mentioned in Nature on Friday.

It is clear that ZMapp might help even humans to heal. Although it has not yet been studied for its effect on human life, there were two American aid workers who got infected in Africa. They were given the drug. The remaining samples were then given out to more patients.

Seven who had got infected with Ebola were treated, but two could not be saved: a doctor from Liberia and a priest from Spain, got not more than one out of three doses. However, the drug worked on a couple of Americans, two Africans and an assistant from Liberia, a doctor from Congo, and a nurse from Britain.

Among those infected by Ebola, almost 1,500 patients died this year, as no definite cure was known. Another 20,000 cases were infected before the outbreak was whipped into control. They have got no vaccine or treatment, but just care and adequate water to keep them hydrated and nourished and avoid spreading through contact with body fluids.

Did ZMapp really turn them round? Doctors are not sure. After all, about 45% of patients this year have been cured even without the drug, anyway.