WASHINGTON, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - No conclusive evidence exists that there is a drug-cure for the Ebola virus, Director of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thomas Frieden told RIA Novosti, adding that while five Americans have been hospitalized and tested, he was confident that the United States could handle an outbreak if it were to occur.
“We are encouraged that there is work on experimental vaccines and experimental treatments. We have no information about whether that treatment is help, harmful, or has no effect,” Frieden said following an emergency hearing in the House of Representatives. “Whatever you may read, my opinion personally, is that the course of two individuals is unlikely to answer that question. That question has to be studied scientifically.”
The outbreak of the Ebola virus is currently affecting four nations in Africa, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. According to the CDC Director, this outbreak is unprecedented, and particularly difficult because of the way it has crossed borders. While measures are in place to screen airline passengers for symptoms of the virus, Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility the virus could be brought to the US.
Frieden said that patients in the US who have come from countries in West Africa - Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone - have been tested negative for Ebola.. He also noted that there is a “vanishingly small number of doses” of the medication given to the two Americans positively diagnosed.
“It’s not impossible that a traveler from West Africa could come into this country, be diagnosed and potentially, if there’s a delay in diagnosis, cause infections in health care works and family members,” Frieden warned. “But I am confident that we will not have a significant risk from Ebola in this country.”
Lagos, Nigeria, the largest city in Africa with a population of 21 million, was the latest to be hit with the Ebola outbreak, causing significant concerns among international health organizations. An American travelling from Liberia to Lagos began showing symptoms on a plane and during his hospitalization at a private hospital infected healthcare workers, one of whom died, and those workers then exposed others to the virus.
“Because of the size and complexity of Lagos, I am deeply, deeply concerned about the situation there,” Frieden said, noting that Lagos is working hard to take the most effective measures to stem the spread of the epidemic.
