The deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history has now infected nearly 2,000 people, with more than half of those killed by the disease, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Ebola is believed to have
infected 1,975 people in four West African countries since the outbreak
began this year, and 1,069 of them have died, the WHO said. The numbers
reflect the WHO's count as of Monday.
That's an increase of 127 cases and 56 deaths in two days, the WHO said.
The outbreak began in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone
The new numbers come as
health officials are opening up to the use of experimental treatments
and vaccines, since no proven treatment or vaccine exists.
A group of ethicists gathered by the WHO this week unanimously concluded that it is ethical to offer unproven medications to fight the Ebola virus, even if their adverse effects are unknown.
After the panel's
decision, Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose announced that her
government will donate between 800 and 1,000 doses of an experimental
Ebola vaccine to the WHO. A "small supply" will be kept at home "in the
unlikely event it is needed for compassionate use in Canada," the Public
Health Agency said.
The drug, VSV-EBOV, is Canadian-made and -owned, having been developed by the National Microbiology Laboratory.
And after an experimental
serum was used to treat two American missionaries and a Spanish priest,
Liberia is poised to use the serum on two infected doctors.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approved Liberia's request for access to ZMapp, which was
created by the San Diego-based biotech firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc.
Sample doses of the medicine will be sent to Liberia this week to treat
doctors who have contracted the virus, the Liberian government said.
The two Americans who received ZMapp, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol,
received the serum after contracting Ebola in Liberia. They were
transferred to an isolation unit at an Atlanta hospital and appear to be
recovering.
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