Video: Expert virologist plays down hopes of Ebola ‘cure’
France24.com
2014-08-13
Despite the World Health Organisation giving the go-ahead for untested drugs to be used in the fight against the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, one expert told FRANCE 24 Wednesday it will be “a constant battle” to create enough doses.
Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology at Nottingham University in the UK, told FRANCE 24 that ZMapp, a drug that has so far only been tested on animals, was in such short supply that “it can’t be used to treat the several hundred people suffering from Ebola”.
“They have given all of their existing stocks for treatment, and this is only a handful of doses,” he said. “It will be a constant battle to create sufficient doses of the drug.”
The last of the drug is on its way to Liberia for two stricken doctors. Mapp, the US company that makes ZMapp said on Tuesday that the supply was “exhausted”. The same day, Canada said it would provide some of its experimental Ebola vaccine for use in West Africa.
A Spanish missionary priest was the third person to receive the experimental ZMapp treatment, but he died in Madrid on Tuesday. Two US aid workers who received it in recent weeks are said to be improving, although it remains unclear if this is because of the treatment. The disease has a 60 percent fatality rate.
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