Ebola Virus Outbreak 2014 News & Update: Vaccine Arriving Soon?
As Ebola cases are expected to hit 10,000 a week by the end of this year, global efforts continue to prevent -- or minimize, at least -- the spread of the virus. With majority of deaths coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the World Health Organization is aimed at the isolation of cases and safe handling of casualties in two months' time.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to handle Ebola more aggressively. CNN reported his response after the second Dallas nurse to contact the disease has been identified.
As of the moment, nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson were documented to test positive for Ebola. Both have attended to America's first Ebola-confirmed patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who tested positive on Sept. 30 and died on Oct. 8.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine director Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered the Ebola virus, believes that only a vaccine can put a halt to the life-threatening epidemic.
Upon its discovery in 1976, Piot commented via The Guardian, "Something that is easy to control got completely out of hand... It may be that we have to wait for a vaccine to stop the epidemic."
Meanwhile, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden expressed that containing the virus is difficult, "There are no shortcuts in the control of Ebola and it is not easy to control it. To protect the United States we need to stop it at its source."
Possible Ebola Virus cure?
The CDC informed the public of the drug ZMapp, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. It must be noted that ZMapp is an experimental treatment measure -- it has not been verified for safe human use. As the drug remains in its experimental stage, it is unknown whether or not it can provide cure to Ebola-positive patients. Supportive therapy remains to be the treatment of choice.
Recent vaccines are being developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and GlaxoSmithKline. In a report by USA Today, trials making use of these vaccines have already started.
On the other hand, Japanese company Fujifilm was reported to have 20,000 doses of the antiviral drug fabipiravir. The said medication was given to a French nurse who acquired Ebola while on a mission in Africa. The nurse recovered later on.
Baltimore-based Profectus BioSciences has been working on another vaccine cultivated from a virus, wrote NBC News. The company was noted to receive about $6 million funding from federal health officials, for a possible extension of up to $8.6 million.