WHO Approves Untested Drugs for Ebola Treatment
World Health Organisation (WHO) says that it is ethical to use un-tested medicines in fight towards disease that has wiped out over a thousand people.
WHO has permitted the use of un-tested Ebola medicines to treat the present outbreak in West Africa.
The WHO stated at a news release in Geneva recently that the use of un-tested medicines was ethical, provided specific conditions were fulfilled.
The declaration comes right after a conference of medical professionals requested to evaluate the ethics of using un-tested medicines in the epidemic.
Two batches of experimental treatments were noted to be going to Liberia on Tuesday, the initial delivery of un-tested Ebola medicines in Africa.
The UN health agency stated over 1000 individuals had died until now from the disease in West Africa, with government bodies recording 1,848 assumed or confirmed cases.
The virus, propagate by direct-contact with body fluids was identified in Guinea in March and has since propagate to Sierra Leone, Liberia and probably Nigeria.
Death rate
Two Americans and a Spanish priest, who contracted Ebola in Liberia, had obtained a dose of the therapy never examined in humans. The Americans have demonstrated signs of enhancement but the priest passed away on Tuesday.
The large majority of Ebola sufferers are Africans, and some have protested that their residents are not obtaining access to the new drugs.
There is no proof yet that experimental medicines can in fact assist fight Ebola, and it is possible they could be dangerous.
The epidemic has had about a 50% death rate, with respect to the UN, adding emergency to the search for a therapy.
WHO also said the world had “a moral duty” to properly collect evidence about the untested treatment’s safety and effectiveness in a proper scientific trial, the AP news agency reported.
West African nations are struggling to control both the deadly epidemic and the fear it has caused. Most flight companies travelling in and out of the Liberian capital of Monrovia have halted flights amid the unprecedented health crisis.
The Ivory Coast, which is neighboring country to Liberia and Guinea, as banned direct flights from those countries and said it would increase health inspections at its borders.