Ebola drug "ZMapp" trial begins in Liberia

[admin]

BOOK INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TICKETS LOCAL FLIGHTS HOTELS BOOKINGS WORLDWIDE AND MORE AT CHEAPEST RATE EVER! CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR FLIGHT AND RECEIVE YOUR FLIGHT TICKET INSTANTLY

Liberia on Friday started a clinical trial of experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, a health official said.

About 1 000 adults and children infected with the virus are participating in the trial in two treatment centres in the capital, Monrovia, said Jerry Brown, one of the trial's principal co-ordinators.

Liberia's health department is conducting the trial with support from the United States national institute of allergy and infectious diseases.

Nine Ebola patients worldwide received ZMapp at the height of the Ebola outbreak last year, according to Brown, of whom six survived.

The institute's director Anthony Fauci said in a statement: "Although ZMapp has been used to treat several Ebola-infected patients in recent months, we cannot determine if the drug actually helped those patients because it was not administered within the context of a clinical trial.