They truly had the heart to find a cure for Ebola. An existing drug for heart disease could be the cure for this dreaded current leader in the epidemic stakes.

A Liverpool medical team has stumbled on this option by chance. In collaboration with Public Health England, the team has been looking at how Ebola virus hijacks proteins inside cells, and then seeking ways to stop this from happening. They looked at what proteins inside a cell are critical for the functions of Ebola virus and are hijacked by the virus to help with infection.

One of the proteins they have targeted is known as VP24. This protein disrupts signaling in infected human cells and disrupts the body’s immune system and the fight against the virus.

From there, the Liverpool team looked at whether any existing drugs already block the function of this particular protein. They found the heart drug ouabain, when administered, can reduce the virus’ replication. The team said that further tests needed to be done, but as the heart drug was already in use, much of the work to test whether it was safe for humans had already been completed. This is one of the rare occasions where a dreaded disease could be tackled and reined in in a very short span. What it means in real terms is that Ebola can be contained, cured and reduced to just another bout of flu.

Usually what happens is that a drug even found supportive of eliminating an infection has to go through drug trials that can be time consuming. Sometimes years before it is safe. We saw an agonizing reflection of these protocols for AIDS in the film Dallas Buyers Club. The advantage here is that it is safe to remove the initial tests and get straight on to treatment. A drowning person does not examine the rope thrown at him.

The Ebola outbreak, by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the disease, has infected 4,269 people and killed 2,400 this year in three West African countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the WHO.

The fears have been global and travel especially by air has made the “global village” concept prone to the viral invasion. Since Ebola is transmitted by air the fears were well founded but it has to be said that the world got together against it with alacrity and a common sense of purpose not usually seen in the medical field. Usually, red tape, a silence on the subject and a flow of misconceptions dramatized by media mark the progress of a new disease.