Breaking: US Gives Ebola Drug To Liberia Free Of Charge

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Liberia will receive an untested experimental drug, Zmapp, to treat people infected with Ebola, the Liberian government says. The move came after a request to the US from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the government said. The news came as medical ethics specialists met in Geneva to explore the use of such new treatments. World Health Organization, which is hosting the meeting, says some 1,013 have died from Ebola in West Africa. According to a statement on the Liberian president’s website said:

“The experimental drugs are to be brought in the country by a representative of the US government later this week,”

However, US government officials said its role had been to put Liberian officials in contact with Zmapp maker Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Continue...


‘No cost’

The pharmaceutical company said its supply of the drug was exhausted after its supplies were sent to West Africa, AFP news agency reported.

The drug was “provided at no cost in all cases,” the company added.

Zmapp has been used in the US on two aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, and a Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who is currently being treated in a hospital in Madrid.

However, the drug has only been tested on monkeys and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will announce the outcome of its emergency meeting on the role of experimental drugs on Tuesday.

Source: BBC News

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