The World Health Organisation (WHO) is holding a meeting of medical ethics specialists in Geneva to explore the use of new, experimental treatments for the Ebola virus.
Nearly 1,000 people have died from Ebola in Liberia, Sierre Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, and when two infected American aid workers were given doses of the drug ZMapp, developed by California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, their condition apparently improved.
Spain on Sunday authorised the use of the ZMapp on 75-year-old Spanish priest Miguel Pajares – the first European infected – who was evacuated to Madrid last week after contracting the haemorrhagic fever while working in a hospital in Monrovia.
If the WHO decides against any further use, it risks accusations of limiting potentially life-saving treatment to aid workers from wealthy countries.
British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is co-developing a vaccine with US scientists which is said to have produced promising results in animal studies involving primates.
The drug is to enter Phase I testing in humans pending approval from US Food and Drug Administration.
A GSK spokeswoman said the trial should get underway “later this year”, while GSK’s partner the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said in a statement it would start “as early as fall 2014”, implying a potential September launch of testing.
Even if is fast-tracked, and emergency procedures are put in place, the new vaccine could not be ready for widespread deployment before 2015 assuming the drug works.
New case in Nigeria as Ivory Coast bans flights
It comes as Nigeria on Monday confirmed a new case of Ebola in the financial capital Lagos, bringing the total number of people with the virus to 10.
Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the latest confirmed case was a female nurse who came into contact with a Liberian-American man, who died of Ebola in a Lagos hospital on July 25.
The Ivory Coast meanwhile announced Monday that it has banned all flights from countries hit by Ebola as part of steps to prevent the deadly virus from reaching the west African nation.
The government said in a statement that it has forbidden all “carriers from transporting passengers” from these countries.
It has also decided “on the suspension until further notice” of flights by its national airline, Air Cote d’Ivoire, to and from these locations.
The government did not name the countries but Liberia, Sierre Leone, Guinea and Nigeria are all in West Africa.
The government said it has also decided to increase preventive measures at Abidjan airport where “all passengers on arrival will have to have their temperatures taken with an infrared thermometer”.
Ebola causes flu-like symptoms including fever. In the worst cases, it causes unstoppable bleeding.
It spreads among humans via bodily fluids including sweat, so can be spread by simply touching an infected person. With no vaccine, patients believed to have caught the virus have to be isolated to stop further contagion.
Officials said Sunday that Nigeria had stopped the Gambian national carrier, Gambia Bird Airlines, from flying into the country, alleging “unsatisfactory” measures by the airline to contain the spread of Ebola.
ABC/AFP