Over
1000 people have already died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
and Nigeria since March during the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
According
to a statement on the Mapp Bio website, “in responding to the request
received this weekend from a West African nation, the available supply of ZMapp
is exhausted.”
“Any
decision to use ZMapp must be made by the patients’ medical team,” it said,
adding that the drug was “provided at no cost in all cases.”
Reportedly,
US and Canadian researchers invented an experimental drug that
is manufactured in tobacco leaves and is hard to produce on a large scale.
However,
the company didn’t reveal which nation received the doses, or how many were sent.
The
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly stressed that the
drug’s effects are unknown, since it has not been through a process of rigorous
clinical trials.
According
to CNN, Liberia was to receive the sample doses.
The
two American missionary workers who fell ill with Ebola while working in
Monrovia last month were given doses of the drug.
Both
have been transported to an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in
Atlanta, Georgia, where they are receiving continuous care.
A
Spanish priest who was sickened with Ebola has also been given a dose.
The
ethics of distributing experimental medications to some people but not others
was the focus of a special meeting of the World Health Organization on Monday.
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