President Barack Obama of US said on Wednesday, 6th August, 2014 that it was too early to send experimental drugs for the treatment of Ebola Virus to West Africa.
He said affected countries should instead concentrate on building a “strong public infrastructure and awareness on the dreaded virus. “I think we have to let the science guide us. And I don’t think all the information is in on whether this drug is helpful.” Obama said.
The decision to use an experimental drug to treat two Americans who are currently down with Ebola, while approximately 1,000 Africans have already died from this deadly epidemic, has flickered controversy.
When asked if he would support advancing its approval in the United States, should the drug prove to be effective, Obama replied: “I think it’s premature for me to say that because I don’t have enough information. I don’t have enough data right now to offer an opinion on that.” He stressed that Ebola, a haemorrhagic virus that kills more than half of those infected, “is not an airborne disease, this is one that can be controlled and contained very effectively if we use the right protocols.”
He further added that “the countries affected are the first to admit that what’s happened here is the public health systems have been overwhelmed. They weren’t able to identify and then isolate cases quickly enough. As a consequence, it spread more rapidly than has been typical with the periodic Ebola outbreaks that occurred previously.”
He said the United States was working with European partners and the World Health Organization to provide means to help control the epidemic.
“We are focusing on the public health approach right now, because we know how to do that, but I will continue to seek information about what we’re learning with respect to these drugs going forward.” Obama affirmed.
DailyPost recalls that approximately 932 people in total have died since March in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria, with 1,711 confirmed cases since the beginning of the year.
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