Ebola Cases Might Soon Exceed 20,000 – WHO
The most unprecedented Ebola outbreak in history might get more than 20,000 people infected and spread to other countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on August 28, 2014.
Current situation and well-reasoned fears
The epidemic currently ravaging West Africa has already claimed over 1,500 lives, with 3,069 cases officially recorded by now. However, this figure is expected to rise dramatically, Reuters reports with reference to the UN health agency.
Related: Ebola Epidemic Will Worsen – US Health Official
The WHO developed a $490 million strategic plan to contain Ebola epidemic within a 9-month period and prevent it from spreading to 10 further countries, based on the tracked projection.
It will be recalled that several organizations accused world's most developed countries of caring only about their own safety when they could contribute to situation improvement in Africa. Now it does not seem the issue any longer, as the WHO official was quoted saying:
"This is not a West African issue or an African issue. This is a global health security issue."
Medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) supported the suggested plan and stressed the importance to follow it, as MSF's operations director said:
"Huge questions remain about who will implement the elements in the plan. None of the organizations in the most-affected countries ... currently have the right set-up to respond on the scale necessary to make a serious impact."
Related: FG Warns Over Ebola Fight
What about drugs?
There is no officially approved and fully tested drug against Ebola. However, the rapid increase in the number of deaths and infections with Ebola prompted the health organizations to fast-track the introduction of experimental drugs.
The first drug associated with treatment of Ebola is called ZMapp and was administered to two Americans who contracted the virus while working in Liberia. ZMapp, a cocktail of antibodies made by California biotech Mapp Biopharmaceutical, is believed to have aided their recovery. However, this very drug reportedly did not save life of the Liberian doctor Borbor, who received it after having got infected with the EVD.
Hopes for the solution appeared again as the British multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced the start of its anti-Ebola drug testing on humans in September. While conducting the experiments they already plan to start producing up to 10,000 doses of the vaccine to make it available to the WHO if the drug proves effective.
Meanwhile in Nigeria
Nigeria was ready to celebrate the win over the deadly tropical virus in the country days ago as there was believed to be one patient left with Ebola, in the unfortunate development Nigerian health minister yesterday confirmed another case of death from the EVD. And the case was recorded in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where it had traveled from Lagos with the diplomat who had contacted Nigeria's first Ebola patient Patrick Sawyer.
Following the incident scores of people were quarantined in Rivers and several more cases of disease contraction were confirmed.
Source: Legit.ng
