Ebola Experimental Drug Ignite Controversy

The decision to use an experimental drug to treat two Americans infected with Ebola, while nearly 1,000 Africans have already died from the deadly epidemic, has sparked controversy but US experts say it was ethically justified.

The World Health Organization announced Wednesday it was convening a special meeting next week to explore using experimental drugs in the West African outbreak, after two health workers from the US charity Samaritan’s Purse were treated with a drug called ZMapp.The experimental drug is still in an extremely early phase of development and had only been tested previously on monkeys. It has never been produced on a large scale. There is no proven treatment or cure for Ebola.

Samaritan’s Purse members Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, however, have shown improvements since taking the drug.- Why not in Africa? -The news has prompted calls to make the drug available to hard-hit Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.Nigeria, where there have been seven confirmed cases so far, has already announced talks with the US Centers for Disease Control on the possibility of getting access to ZMapp.

And three leading Ebola experts, including Peter Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 and is director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, urged the drug be made more widely available.  “It is highly likely that if Ebola were now spreading in Western countries, public health authorities would give at-risk patients access to experimental drugs or vaccines,” said the joint statement Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.“The African countries where the current outbreaks of Ebola are occurring should have the same opportunity,” it added.  Mapp Pharmaceuticals, the US company behind the drug, said any decision to use the drug should be made by treating doctors within regulatory guidelines, and added it is working to increase production.