How the Ebola outbreak turned in to a racism and responsibility debate [access here]
The news has sparked an ethical debate over equality of access to medical care and racism as two white Americans were given potentially life-saving treatment [ZMapp] denied to hundreds of Africans.
"...there are parallel questions over “the ethics of rushing forward with experimental [drugs] that haven’t been put through any clinical trials and whose safety and efficacy are unknown.”
Debate erupts on 'repurposed' drugs for Ebola [access here]
Eleanor Fish is frustrated. The immunologist at the University of Toronto in Canada thinks she knows how to help save the lives of people battling Ebola—but nobody seems interested. Fish believes health care workers and people exposed to the virus should take Infergen, a synthetic interferon α that she has studied extensively and that has been used widely to treat hepatitis C and several other diseases. Pharmunion BSV Development, the Ukrainian company that makes it, has offered to ship 60,000 vials to Africa for free.
Just a month ago, WHO said it would be unethical and unwise to use such interventions at this time (Science, 25 July, p. 364). But the treatment of two U.S. patients who contracted Ebola in Liberia with an experimental antibody cocktail called ZMapp has shifted public perceptions, says Armand Sprecher of Doctors Without Borders in Brussels.
Scentists show how Ebola disables initial immune defenses [access here]
"Our study is the first to show how Ebola viral protein 24 defeats the signal sent by interferons, the key signaling molecules in the body's early response to Ebola virus infection," notes Christopher F. Basler, Ph.D., professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and an author of the newly published paper. "These newfound details of Ebola biology are already serving as the foundation of a new drug development effort, albeit in its earliest stages."
Lesson #1 - Scientists do beef too.
Debate erupts on 'repurposed' drugs for Ebola [access here]
Eleanor Fish is frustrated. The immunologist at the University of Toronto in Canada thinks she knows how to help save the lives of people battling Ebola—but nobody seems interested. Fish believes health care workers and people exposed to the virus should take Infergen, a synthetic interferon α that she has studied extensively and that has been used widely to treat hepatitis C and several other diseases. Pharmunion BSV Development, the Ukrainian company that makes it, has offered to ship 60,000 vials to Africa for free.
Just a month ago, WHO said it would be unethical and unwise to use such interventions at this time (Science, 25 July, p. 364). But the treatment of two U.S. patients who contracted Ebola in Liberia with an experimental antibody cocktail called ZMapp has shifted public perceptions, says Armand Sprecher of Doctors Without Borders in Brussels.
Scentists show how Ebola disables initial immune defenses [access here]
"Our study is the first to show how Ebola viral protein 24 defeats the signal sent by interferons, the key signaling molecules in the body's early response to Ebola virus infection," notes Christopher F. Basler, Ph.D., professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and an author of the newly published paper. "These newfound details of Ebola biology are already serving as the foundation of a new drug development effort, albeit in its earliest stages."
Lesson #1 - Scientists do beef too.
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