Agencies Warn About Fake Ebola Cures; News Outlets Discuss Issues Related To Ebola Treatment

News outlets report on the issuance of warnings from the WHO and the U.S. FDA about fake Ebola cures, as well as other issues related to the treatment of Ebola.

Guardian: Ebola outbreak: the vaccine and ‘secret serum’ explained
“As Nigeria becomes the fourth West African country fighting to contain Ebola, Professor Eleanor Riley from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explains the latest medical science for preventing and treating the disease…” (Leach, 8/15).

Mother Jones: New Drugs and Vaccines Can’t Stop This Ebola Outbreak
“With the death toll in the worst Ebola outbreak in history exceeding 1,000, pharmaceutical companies and health authorities are sprinting to develop new drugs and vaccines. On Monday, drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline announced that it would start clinical trials of an Ebola vaccine ahead of schedule. And on Tuesday, the World Health Organization ruled that the use of experimental drugs to treat Ebola patients is ethical so long as the patients give their consent. But for now, there are no proven drugs to treat Ebola, and experts doubt that any new drug or vaccine could beat back the current outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea…” (Redden, 8/18).

New York Times: Agencies Issue Warnings Over Bogus Ebola Cures
“Panic over Ebola has the makers of dietary supplements aggressively targeting Africans, claiming to have a cure for the lethal virus. Late this week, both the World Health Organization and the United States Food and Drug Administration issued strong warnings about false Ebola cures. The latter threatened American companies with penalties if they continue making such claims…” (McNeil, 8/15).

New York Times: 3 Liberian Health Workers With Ebola Receive Scarce Drug After Appeals to U.S.
“Three Liberian health care workers who have contracted Ebola received an extremely scarce experimental serum on Friday at a hospital outside the national capital, Monrovia, a Liberian health official said Saturday…” (Fink, 8/16).

Reuters: Liberia gives experimental Ebola drug to three African doctors
“Health care workers in Liberia have administered three doses of the rare, experimental drug ZMapp to three doctors suffering from Ebola, two medical workers in Monrovia told Reuters…” (MacDougall, 8/16).

ScienceInsider: WHO ponders treating Ebola-infected people with blood of survivors
“As the Ebola outbreaks rages on in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO), desperate for a way to help infected people, is reconsidering a potential Ebola treatment tried as far back as 1976, after the first documented outbreak of the deadly viral disease: using the blood of people who have recovered from an infection to treat those still fighting the virus…” (Kupferschmidt, 8/15).

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