LEADING Ebola specialists in Britain say experimental treatments for the deadly virus should be offered to patients in West Africa.
The calls came after two US aid workers were administered the drugs in Liberia.
The two American patients, Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were working with a Christian charity when they contracted the deadly disease. Both remain alive and are being treated at a specialist isolation unit in Atlanta, the Independent reports.
Although it cannot be known how much the experimental drug treatment has contributed to the American patients’ continuing survival, the move has generated considerable criticism in West Africa, where the death toll has hit 932.
In a joint statement, Peter Piot, who discovered Ebola in 1976, David Heymann, the director of the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security and Jeremy Farrar from the Wellcome Trust have said there are several drugs and vaccines under study that could be used to combat the disease.
“African governments should be allowed to make informed decisions about whether or not to use these products — for example to protect and treat healthcare workers who run especially high risks of infection,” they wrote.
They called on the World Health Organisation to “take on this greater leadership role” and exercise its authority to allow the treatments to be shared and distributed.
The US aid workers were given ZMapp, a drug made from antibodies produced in a lab that has never gone through human trials or been approved by the US’s FDA Food and Drug Administration.
The three specialists questioned why Africans were not being given the same chance. “In the face of the critical challenge in West Africa, the WHO and Western medical agencies should be helping countries weigh the risks and benefits of limited deployment of the best (drug and vaccine) candidates to those in the greatest need, while continuously monitoring safety and efficacy.”
The total number of cases currently surpasses 1700, the World Health Organisation says. Some strains can have fatality rates of up to 90 per cent, though that of the current crisis appears to be around 60 per cent.
In a statement on Wednesday, the UN health agency said its latest updated figures took account of 108 new cases and 45 deaths reported by Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone between last Saturday and Monday.
The total number of laboratory-confirmed, probable or suspected cases of Ebola has now reached 1711 since the outbreak in west Africa began in January, according to the WHO’s figures.
The agency said that of the 45 new deaths, 27 were in Liberia, 13 in Sierra Leone and five in Guinea, where the outbreak began.
Sierra Leone’s case-count has overtaken Guinea’s in recent months.
It reported 45 new cases, taking its total to 691, with 286 deaths.
Liberia reported 48 new cases, lifting its total to 282. Of those, 282 have been fatal.
Although Guinea recorded just 10 new cases, it still has the highest death toll.
In total, Guinea has seen 363 fatalities and 495 cases and since the outbreak began.
The WHO listed five new cases in Nigeria, taking that country’s count to nine, with one death.
Earlier on Wednesday, Nigeria had confirmed five new cases in Lagos and a second death from the virus, bringing the total number of infections in sub-Saharan Africa’s largest city to seven.