MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) – Three African doctors infected with the deadly Ebola virus have been administered the experimental serum ZMapp, Reuters reported quoting two medical workers in the capital of Liberia, Monrovia.
"Three doctors are currently being administered treatment with the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp. Treatment began on Thursday evening," Dr. Billy Johnson, chief medical officer of John F. Kennedy Medical Centre where two of the doctors served before contracting Ebola said.
Another medical worker at the Elwa centre where the patients are currently being treated confirmed that the doctors have been receiving the drug for three days already.
It is not yet known whether the sick doctors had shown any signs of improvement.
Earlier this week, the United States delivered three doses of the ZMapp serum to Liberia, which has the highest death toll from the Ebola virus. According to the UN health agency, there currently exist some 10 or 12 doses of the vaccine.
The two doctors from Liberia and one from Nigeria are the first African doctors to undergo the experimental Ebola treatment. Earlier these vaccines were administered to US missionary workers with the aid organization Samaritan’s Purse and a Spanish priest who died Tuesday in a hospital in Madrid.
Earlier on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said that it is ethical to use experimental drugs to treat patients infected with the deadly Ebola virus.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a deadly disease transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of the infected. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus, which has a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
According to the recent WHO estimates, the death toll from the virus has exceeded 1,140. A total of 2,127 people have been infected.
