Cure for Ebola at last?

   For Ebola, an illness of exceptional contagion which first outbreak of the virus was in 1976, its origin traced to Congo and Sudan, cure for the dreaded disease seems to have been found in the United States (US).
Two American citizens in Liberia struck by the ailment while on medical missionary work, Nancy
Writebol and Dr. Ken Brantly flown to the US to get treatment have improved tremendously, after being
given the experimental drug.
The two Ebola victims, who had travelled 6,000 miles from West Africa in special aircraft, were admitted at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, are now getting
much better. They were unable to walk on arrival, but are now doing so.
   The report named the serum as ZMapp – an experimental drug, even not yet approved for clinical trials, although already used on small number of monkeys. It was grown in green house with genetically modified tobacco. So far, the drug is
working well on the Ebola patients.
Manufactured by a US pharmaceutical company, ZMapp was supposed to hit the market in 2015, but is being tried because of the current deadly epidemic
caused by the virus now ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea with nearly 900 people killed by
the disease which has made inroad into Nigeria. With one person dead and eight people confirmed positive
to Ebola, Africa’s most populous country could be fatally threatened.
   The two Americans have reportedly got up on their own after the drug was administered on them, seen as a big surprise. They are already recovering.
Patients afflicted by Ebola are usually quarantined, going into isolation in the four West African countries where the disease is ravaging, well protected and
temperatures taken twice a day.
The (US) plans to send 50 health experts to West Africa and help the health authorities in combating
the scourge. Ebola is virtually out of control in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as dozens of doctors and nurses have died in efforts to give medicare to victims. Unlike Africa with poor ineffective and obsolete
medical facilities, the US has top class infrastructure and medical personnel to take quick care of Ebola victims. Among these are the Centre for Disease Control, CDC, the National Institute of Allergy and
Infections Diseases, IAID, and several others who are up to the challenge. The experimental serum has brought some ray of hope to the global community including Nigeria.