Monrovia - Liberia announced on Monday that it would soon
receive doses of an experimental Ebola drug and give it to two
sick doctors, making them the first Africans to receive some of
the scarce treatment in a spiralling outbreak.
The US government confirmed that it had put Liberian officials
in touch with the maker of ZMapp, and referred additional
questions to Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc.
In a statement, the California-based company said that in
responding to a request from an unidentified West African
country, it had run out of its supply of the treatment.
The news comes as anger is growing over the fact that the only
people to receive the experimental treatment so far have been
Westerners: two Americans and a Spaniard, all of whom were
evacuated to their home countries from Liberia.
Late Monday, the World Health Organisation said 1 013 people
had died in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Authorities have
recorded 1 848 suspected, probable or confirmed cases of the
disease, the UN health agency said.
The updated WHO tally includes figures from 7-9 August when
52 more people died and 69 more were infected.
There is no Ebola vaccine or treatment available, but there are
several in development besides ZMapp. That treatment is so
new that it hasn't been tested for safety or effectiveness in
humans. And the company has said it would take months to
produce even modest quantities.
It was unclear how much of the treatment would be sent to
Liberia.
"The US Government assisted in connecting the Government
of Liberia with the manufacturer," the US Department of
Health and Human Services said in a statement. "Since the
drug was shipped for use outside the US, appropriate export
procedures had to be followed."
‘Çompassionate use’
The Liberian statement, posted on the presidency's website,
said it was also receiving an experimental treatment from the
World Health Organisation. It was unclear if this was also
referring to ZMapp or another treatment.
In the past few weeks, the experimental drug was given to two
American aid workers diagnosed with the disease while
working at a hospital that treated Ebola patients. On Monday,
officials in Spain disclosed that the treatment was also given to
a Spanish missionary priest who fell ill while working in
Liberia.
The Americans are said to be improving, but there's no way to
know whether the drug helped, or if they are getting better on
their own, as others have. Around 40% of those infected with
Ebola are surviving the current outbreak.
But some called for the untested drug to be given to Africans,
too. The outbreak was first identified in March in Guinea, but it
likely started months earlier. It has since spread to
neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, and possibly to Nigeria.
"There's no reason to try this medicine on sick white people
and to ignore blacks," said Marcel Guilavogui, a pharmacist in
Conakry, Guinea. "We understand that it's a drug that's being
tested for the first time and could have negative side effects.
But we have to try it in blacks too."
Some are using Twitter to demand that the drug be made
available.
"We can't afford to be passive while many more die," said
Aisha Dabo, a Senegalese-Gambian journalist who was
tweeting using the hashtag "GiveUsTheSerum"on Monday.
"That's why we raise our voice for the world to hear us."
The ethical dilemmas involved prompted the UN health
agency to consult on Monday with ethicists, infectious disease
experts, patient representatives and the Doctors Without
Borders group.
Most participants in the closed teleconference were from
developed countries, but Uganda and Senegal were
represented. The World Health Organisation said it would
discuss the results of the meeting at a press conference on
Tuesday.
Companies can provide experimental drugs on a
"compassionate use" basis, usually after they have been fully
tested in humans. The Food and Drug Administration approves
such uses in the US, but has no authority overseas. Ultimately,
the companies alone decide whether or not to share their
products.
Spain's Health Ministry said it obtained ZMapp this weekend
with company permission to treat Miguel Pajares, a 75-year-
old priest evacuated from Liberia and placed in isolation on
Thursday at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital.
"The medicine was imported from Geneva where there was
one dose available in the context of an accord between the
laboratory that developed the medicine, WHO and (Doctors
Without Borders)," the ministry said, invoking a Spanish law
permitting unauthorised medication for patients with life-
threatening illnesses.
‘Certain death’
Spanish authorities refused to comment beyond the ministry's
statement, but Geneva University Hospital told The Associated
Press it was involved in getting the drug to Madrid.
The evacuated American aid workers, Dr Kent Brantly and
Nancy Writebol, have been improving at Atlanta's Emory
University Hospital. They got the treatment after their
international relief group Samaritan's Purse asked Kentucky
BioProcessing, which produces it for Mapp
Biopharmaceutical.
The treatment is aimed at boosting the immune system's
efforts to fight off Ebola. It is made from antibodies grown
inside tobacco plants
A Sierra Leone official said they had not asked for the drug,
but the other governments said they want any treatment that
might help patients recover, despite the risks of unproven
medicines.
"The alternative for not testing this is death, a certain death,"
Liberia's information minister, Lewis Brown, told The AP in an
interview before the announcement.
Guinea said on Monday it wants some, too.
"Guinean authorities would naturally be interested in having
this medicine," said Alhoussein Makanera Kake, spokesperson
for the government committee fighting Ebola.
Also Read: Spanish Ebola patient gets
experimental drug
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or
bodily fluids of a sick person. It begins with symptoms
including fever and sore throat and can escalate to vomiting,
diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding.
In other Ebola developments on Monday:
- An African nun who worked with the infected Spanish priest
died from Ebola in Liberia, their Catholic aid group said.
- A nurse who treated Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American
who flew into Nigeria and died last month, also died of Ebola,
Nigerian health authorities said, raising the number of locally
confirmed Ebola cases to 10. Nigeria is monitoring 177
contacts of Sawyer to contain the outbreak. The WHO has yet
to confirm any Ebola cases in Nigeria.
- Ivory Coast, which shares borders with Liberia and Guinea,
banned direct flights from the infected countries and said it
would increase health inspections and enforcement of its
borders, but stopped short of closing them entirely.
- George Weah, a Liberian former FIFA world player of the
year, joined awareness efforts by recording a song titled
"Ebola is real," with proceeds going to the Liberian Health
Ministry.
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