Experts defend giving new Ebola drug to two US citizens, amid 1,000 African deaths
As virus toll rises in Africa, US experts defend using experimental medicine on Americans
The decision to use an experimental drug to treat two Americans infected with Ebola, while nearly 1,000 Africans have died without access to a cure, has sparked controversy. But US experts say it was ethically justified.
The World Health Organisation announced on Wednesday that it was convening a meeting next week to explore the use of 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.
Remember there is harm that can come from unproven treatments
The experimental drug is still in an early phase of development and has been tested only on monkeys. It has never been produced on a large scale. There is no proven cure for Ebola.
Samaritan's Purse members Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, however, have improved since taking the drug.
The news has prompted calls to make the drug available to hard-hit Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Nigeria, where there have been seven cases, has announced talks with the US Centres for Disease Control on getting access to ZMapp.
And three leading Ebola experts, including Peter Piot, who co-discovered the virus in 1976 and is director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, called for the drug to be made more widely available.