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Ebola Experts Discuss Possible Cures, Vaccines

by VOA News September 04, 2014

Nearly 200 experts on Ebola are meeting in Switzerland to discuss possible cures and vaccines for the deadly disease, as the number of cases in West Africa continues to rise.

The World Health Organization says the two-day conference in Geneva is to review recent developments in possible treatments for Ebola and identify the most important actions that need to be taken.

On Thursday, the gathering's opening day, the WHO called for drug companies and regulatory agencies to collaborate in speeding up development and access to promising, safe treatments to fight Ebola, Reuters reported.

​​No cure or vaccine exists for the deadly disease, although an experimental serum, ZMapp, made by a U.S. company, has been given to a small number of patients, some of whom have survived.

ZMapp is among 10 experimental treatments that are being investigated for their potential in combatting the virus and its effects, the WHO said in literature distributed at the conference's start. They include eight drugs and 'two promising candidate vaccines,' Reuters quoted the document as saying.

Doctor's death adds to toll

The West African Ebola outbreak this year has killed more than 1,900 people and infected at least 3,500, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO Director General Margaret Chan said Wednesday.

On Thursday, Nigerian Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu said the Ebola virus has killed seven and infected 18 in his country, including a doctor from the southern city of Port Harcourt who died August 22.

The WHO said the doctor's case is important, because he continued to treat patients for three days after coming down with Ebola symptoms August 11. He had numerous contacts with friends and relatives who visited his house after the birth of a baby.

The U.N. agency warned that 'the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt has the potential to grow larger and spread faster' than the recent outbreak in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos.

Lagos experienced a small outbreak after a Liberian man with Ebola, Patrick Sawyer, flew into the city in late July. That outbreak was believed to be quickly contained, but the WHO says a man who had contact with Sawyer defied a quarantine and went to Port Harcourt, where he transmitted the virus to the doctor.

Nigeria monitors nearly 300 people

Nigeria's health minister said Thursday that authorities are now monitoring nearly 300 people for Ebola symptoms.

Health officials across West Africa have warned people to avoid contact with the body fluids of Ebola patients, including those killed by the disease.

U.S. health officials say the key to containing the outbreak will be increasing the number of Ebola treatment centers, providing protective equipment to health care workers and monitoring the contacts of those infected.