Ebola virus that has not been tested is the same as a double-edged sword

This week hosts the World Health Organization consultation on the use of experimental drugs against Ebola virus in West Africa.
Experimental drug has been used and only in a few patients only. Of course there is a lot of interest among people around the world about whether they might be able to help. There are also additional therapies that have been under discussion. But there is much work to be done to figure out what would be a therapeutic benefit. It's important to move the work forward - especially in the context of this outbreak. But it is also important to ensure that they are safe for people and that there is some effectiveness is measured as well.

There are ethical issues involved - and the very difficult decisions that must be made when the drug is in limited supply.
Ethical dilemmas we face the double-edged sword. On the one hand, we have a drug that really has not been tested in humans. And if we put it into the African population who are less fortunate, one might say: You're experimenting on these people. But if you do not give to people who are so obviously affected by the disease, and where there is clearly a crisis like that, then people say: You do not help them, you are not helping the situation. I think it's very important to ensure that the drug is effective and safe before they are given to people who already have some problems with this rejected and does not believe public health efforts. If it is not safe and put into a population that does not believe that effort, it makes the situation worse.

While outbreaks in West Africa continues to grow. The World Health Organization is now talking about a total of 20,000 cases in the coming months.

Plague is really spread quickly, and has a lot to do with the location where the infected people: that we basically have an outbreak occurred in slum conditions, especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone, where people have a lot of contacts. There are also a lot of difficulty in identifying the people most likely to be sick, that is how we have previously successfully outbreak. At this point we have to think about things other than browsing contacts - but think about providing good care, and keeping sick people from passing the disease to others.

Not necessarily. Typical situation where a person infected with Ebola remains remote areas. In West Africa there are remote regions that are involved, but there is also a good way - that is not the case in many areas where we have outbreaks in the past. The ability for the sick - and those affected - to move across these countries might easily have played a large role in how the outbreak is spreading pretty fast. Another thing that continues to play a major role is the resistance of the community to participate in the effort to control the outbreak. There are still many areas where people are not going to let the workers go response - and there are fears of violence. That is something that still needs to be addressed. There is a lot of work going on to try and get people to participate and bring the outbreak under control in the area.

This is a situation where, because of the resistance of the community, sometimes we do not have good information. Areas where people can not go and collect the information needed to assess how big the plague - The term "shadow zone" has been used.