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Source: http://o.canada.com/health/who-ebola-ethics-497241
WHO seeks expert advice on the ethics of using experimental Ebola drugs
Published: August 10, 2014, 8:51 am
Updated: 6 hours ago
By Helen Branswell
TORONTO ? On Monday experts from around the world will converge, by telephone, to try to chart a path through a mine field of ethical issues related to the expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The experts ? ethicists and representatives of the affected countries and other players involved in the outbreak ? are meeting at the request of the World Health Organization to debate whether it is ethical to use experimental Ebola therapies in this epidemic.
Most of the treatment options, including the one given recently to two American aid workers, have never been tested in humans. Studies in Ebola-infected primates provide the strongest clues of whether these potential drugs and candidate vaccines might work on people and whether they are safe for people to use.
The ethical questions are thorny, especially given the number of available doses or treatment courses is vanishingly small ? nowhere near enough to make a dent in an outbreak that has already claimed close to 1,000 lives. Nearly 40 per cent of all known Ebola deaths ever have occurred in this outbreak, which is far from over...
WHO seeks expert advice on the ethics of using experimental Ebola drugs
Published: August 10, 2014, 8:51 am
Updated: 6 hours ago
By Helen Branswell
TORONTO ? On Monday experts from around the world will converge, by telephone, to try to chart a path through a mine field of ethical issues related to the expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The experts ? ethicists and representatives of the affected countries and other players involved in the outbreak ? are meeting at the request of the World Health Organization to debate whether it is ethical to use experimental Ebola therapies in this epidemic.
Most of the treatment options, including the one given recently to two American aid workers, have never been tested in humans. Studies in Ebola-infected primates provide the strongest clues of whether these potential drugs and candidate vaccines might work on people and whether they are safe for people to use.
The ethical questions are thorny, especially given the number of available doses or treatment courses is vanishingly small ? nowhere near enough to make a dent in an outbreak that has already claimed close to 1,000 lives. Nearly 40 per cent of all known Ebola deaths ever have occurred in this outbreak, which is far from over...