Nigerian officials confirmed three more Ebola cases as trio of missionaries quarantined in US and Liberia shuts down third entire province
Doctors across the globe stepped up their attempts to halt the spread of the Ebola epidemic yesterday, as Nigerian officials confirmed three more cases, a trio of missionaries were quarantined in the US and the Liberian authorities shut down a third entire province.
In a bid to tackle what has become the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history, officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday hosted a meeting to discuss the possibility of using experimental drugs on patients.
There is no known cure for the killer virus. WHO officials have now declared the current outbreak, which has killed 961 people, a global public health emergency.
However health officials are divided as to the merits of using drugs which have not been trialled.
"Is it ethical to use unregistered medicines to treat people, and if so, what criteria should they meet, and what conditions, and who should be treated?" said WHO assistant director-general Marie-Paule Kieny, ahead of Monday's meeting.
Most of the current cases have appeared in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But the virus is spreading.
Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola, up from seven at the last count. Two patients have died in the country including Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian who has generated local anger for bringing the virus in through Lagos airport.
In the US, three church workers – including the husband of a missionary being treated for Ebola in Atlanta – have been quarantined in North Carolina after returning from West Africa.
Meanwhile Rwandan authorities announced they had quarantined a German student with Ebola-like symptoms. The patient was the first to be tested in Rwanda since the beginning of the outbreak.
The announcement came following reports that a toddler who died in a Guinea border town just before Christmas last year was the "patient zero" who sparked the Ebola crisis.
The two-year-old boy was from Guéckédou, a jungle village which lies on the country's border with Liberia and Sierra Leone, and was reportedly declared the first case of the current outbreak by investigators.
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