Use of experimental Ebola drug raises red flags among medical experts
Thetruthshallsetyoufree.net
August 6, 2014
Two American aid workers were gravely ill, fighting to survive infection with the deadly Ebola virus. A San Diego drug company had three doses of an experimental Ebola medicine that showed promise in monkeys but had never been tested in humans.
Getting the medication to the two patients in Liberia seemed like the obvious thing to do. Members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Christian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse worked together to make it happen.
Patient advocates who believe the drug is helpful are asking when it can be made available to the hundreds of West Africans who are ill.
But what looks like a simple case of humanitarian goodwill could lead to some unintended and very negative consequences, experts said Tuesday.
Although there could be a short-term gain for a dying patient, in the long run it would undermine scientists’ ability to determine whether the drug was actually safe and effective.
“I don’t think we want to say these drug companies are obligated to suddenly mass-produce these drugs,” said Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, a medical ethicist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “That would subvert the whole FDA-regulated process of trying to do solid research on these drugs.”
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