Are drugs the best way to curb the Ebola outbreak?
"Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own. Our collective health security depends on support for containment operations in these countries.Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization
More than 1000 people have now died during this outbreak, and that number is growing.
This morning, a Spanish priest with the Ebola virus has died. He had received an experimental drug called Zmapp -- the same drug used to treat two American relief workers who contracted Ebola in recent days. They are now in the United States recovering.
As health care officials remind us, there is no proven cure for Ebola. But some say that if the West has therapies that might work, it should move to mass produce the experimental treatment and get it to those who are suffering. Others caution that rushing ahead with unproven treatments is a serious mistake.
To discuss the ethics and effectiveness of using drugs to curb the outbreak, we were joined by two guests:
- Dr. Michael Osterholm is the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
- Ubaka Ogbogu is the Katz Research Fellow in Health Law at the University of Alberta.
What do you think?
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This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturino, Naheed Mustafa and intern Wanyee Li.