The Center for Disease Control or CDC in the United States has cautioned that the ZMapp drug requested by the Government of Liberia to be administered on Ebola patients has not been tested on human beings or confirmed by the CDC and the US Government.
Speaking Thursday in a weekly press briefing held by the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism on Capitol Hill, the country director of the Center for Disease Control, Kelvin De Cock, said the CDC and the US Government has no position on the usage of the experimental drug, as one of their colleagues just died without using ZMap.
“Our job is not to administer drugs, but to help in buttressing the government’s effort with the necessary support that they require.”
Kelvin described the current situation in Liberia as a national emergency that needs full cooperation of every citizen, not only the government, because it affects schools, business, and the economy, warning that people should stop the disbelief about the virus as Ebola is real. eap_ad_1] He told reporters that the Ebola virus is something that destroys the human capacity, and there is no evidence that it is being used as a biological weapon as many people may claim.
Liberia’s assistant health minister for preventive services, Tolbert Nyenswah, said the ZMap drug has not reached Level Three for human consumption, but the Government of Liberia requested that it should be used compassionately, and that patients who may want to take it will have to give consent or sign a waiver.
Nyenswah, recently appointed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to head the government, national response unit, pointed out that Montserrado and Lofa counties are hot spots in the country for Ebola cases, noting that Ebola has been in existence since 1976, but in Liberia it is very strange.
The ZMap drug was used on two American doctors from Liberia who tested positive of the virus and have been reportedly responding in the midst of uncertainty of hundred percent survival.
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