Why did 2 US workers get Ebola serum while Africans are left to die?

August 07, 2014 01:48

In mid-July, Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, a small, privately held biotech firm based in San Diego, inked a deal to finalize the commercialization of an experimental drug known as ZMapp, a cocktail of three lab-created antibodies that, when combined, can do what no antibody-naturally occurring or otherwise -- had been proven to do just several years ago: neutralize the Ebola virus.

Before this week, the drug was narrowly known, mostly by industry watchers and researchers. That changed on Monday, when it was reported that ZMapp had been given to Kent Brantly, a missionary doctor from Texas who contracted Ebola while working at ELWA hospital, in Monrovia, Liberia.

According to CNN, "Brantly was able to walk into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being evacuated to the United States last week." Nancy Writebol, a missionary who worked in the same hospital, reportedly was also given ZMapp and arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Prior to these doses, the drug had never been tested in human subjects.

The inequality in care couldn't be starker.

Read more HERE

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