A second member of a North Carolina-based aid group working in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola, and is now in an isolation unit in that country.
The group SIM USA said in statement today that one of its doctors was infected while treating obstetric patients in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city. The doctor isolated himself when he first had symptoms, according to the statement.
Nancy Writebol, an aid worker with SIM, was one of two Americans who were flown to Atlanta, treated and released last month after being similarly infected in Liberia. The other was Kent Brantly, a missionary doctor with Samaritan’s Purse, another North Carolina-based aid organization.
“My heart was deeply saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learned another of our missionary doctors contracted Ebola,” said Bruce Johnson, president of Charlotte-based SIM USA, in the statement.
The statement didn’t identify the doctor, or say whether he would be returned to the U.S. for treatment. It also didn’t specify what type of treatment he might receive. The missionary group has scheduled a news conference for tomorrow.
Both Writebol and Brantly received an experimental treatment developed by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. before being moved to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. There they received standard care that includes hydration, replacing lost blood and using antibiotics to fight opportunistic infections, doctors said.
While Mapp has since said its supply of the drug is exhausted, the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority today said it will contract with Mapp to provide $24.9 million to support the development and manufacturing of the medication, known as ZMapp.
This is the agency’s first involvement in the development of a product to treat viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever, according to the statement by the group, an arm of the U.S. Department of Healty and Human Services.
A study of ZMapp published in the journal Nature Aug. 29 showed monkeys infected with Ebola survived after being treated with the drug. All 18 monkeys given the medicine lived, while three that weren’t treated died.
Also today, Tom Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he believed the outbreak, which has already claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people in West Africa, will get worse.
“The bottom line is that despite tremendous efforts from the U.S. government, the CDC, from within countries, the number of cases continues to increase and is increasing rapidly,” said Frieden, who just returned from a trip to West Africa, in a conference call with reporters. “I’m afraid that over the next few weeks those numbers will continue to increase.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Angela Zimm
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1uh1IM2
0 comments:
Post a Comment