In light of recent news that the Ebola virus death toll has reached over 1000 people, the World Health Organization has santioned that unlicensed and experimental drugs and vaccines be used on the infected patients in West Africa. Liberia is the first of the affected countries to come forward and declare that they are going to be using such drugs in an attempt to contain the raging virus.
Shortly after the death of Miguel Pajeres, a 75-year-old Spanish priest that contracted the Ebola virus while on a mission in Liberia, the WHO made it known that they are now authorizing the use of the previously animal-tested drugs. Liberia officials are planning on administering the said drugs to doctors in the country who have tested positive for the virus.
When two American missionaries were infected with the disease, they were brought back to United States where they were given the experimental drug ZMapp, and they have shown promising signs as their bodies are reported to be responding well to the medication. This has sparked outrage in West Africa about why the drug was not being offered to patients in the infected parts of the region to use for treatment. However, Zmapp manufacturers, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, said that its supply of the supposed Ebola cure is now running low after they reportedly responded to a request from a yet unidentified West African country. Now the manufacturer is under pressure to produce more of the drug after the WHO issued the decision stating that all experimental drugs that are intended to treat the Ebola virus, even those pending clinical and human trials, can be used ethically due to the scale of the current outbreak.
Despite the leniency, the WHO said that ethical standards must still be observed and the recipients of these unlicensed drugs must be educated about the implications that the treatment might have to the patients. Consent from the families or persons concerned must also be obtained to make sure that they understand all the risks involved, including the possible benefits. The administration of these experimental drugs must be voluntary and, in any case, all information will be held in high confidentiality as a means of preserving the patient's dignity and their involvement with the community.
