Ebola Serum Working on Infected Americans
There is no known cure for the Ebola virus but the two American aid workers who contacted the disease in Liberia are being given an experimental serum in an effort to stem the disease.
A little know pharmaceutical firm , Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., San Diego , has developed the serum. The drug, called Zmapp, had never been tested in humans, according to a company statement released Monday.
The firm has produced only three doses of the serum, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Two have been given to Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, the two infected U.S. patients .
"This was the first time it was put into humans, because all the previous work was done on animals and the results had been encouraging," Fauci said, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Brantly was flown to Emory University near the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, Sunday. Writebol is schedule join him by Tuesday.
The U.S. Defense Department, the CDC and a private company have built a high end fully-equipped isolation pod in a Gulf Stream Jet, which was flown to Liberia to bring the two patients, reports the CNN.
Dr Brantly, was able to shower by himself within a day of taking the secret serum, according to a report in Times Of India.
According to the latest World Health Organisation reports, the count of Ebola infected in West Africa has gone up. 163 new Ebola cases on July 31 and Aug. 1 have been reported. The epidemic has killed at least 700 people since February in West Africa, according to statistics from the WHO. There is no known cure for the highly contagious virus.
