No Ebola drug for Africans; troops deployed

August 08, 2014 02:04

Africans battling to contain the spread of Ebola will have to wait for months until a potentially life-saving experimental drug used on two Americans infected with the dreaded disease would even be manufactured, officials said.

Soldiers in two of the infected countries deployed today to try to stem further spread of the virus.

Even if the experimental drug ZMapp is manufactured in large quantities, its ability to treat Ebola is unproven and furthermore no commitment has been publicly made to provide it to Africa.

The health minister of Nigeria, one of the four countries where Ebola has broken out, told a news conference in Washington that he had asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about access to the drug. But a CDC spokesman said yesterday "there are virtually no doses available."

Some people in affected countries already have wondered why the drug wasn't offered to any infected people in Africa.

Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said the manufacturer has told the US government that it would take two to three months to produce even "a modest amount."

"We don't even know if it works," he stressed.

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