Ebola: Nigeria Reaches Out To U.S. For Experimental Drug

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The federal government said it has reached out to United States health authorities for access to the experimental drug used to treat two American volunteer doctors who were infected with the disease while treating Ebola patients in Liberia.

The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, told Journalists that Nigeria government is in consultation with the U.S. Centre for Disease Control, CDC, to acquire the “secret serum” used in the treatment of American doctors, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol. The experimental “secret Serum” is said to have had an almost immediate effect on the doctors and their health improved considerably.

Though it reportedly proved effective in the treatment of primates, the Americans were the first humans to be treated with the drug known as “ZMapp,” and developed by a San Diego-based biotech firm, Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc.

“We are in touch with the Americans. Yesterday, I spoke on telephone with the Director of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Tom Freiden. We spoke at length, and we have exchanged emails. Yesterday, I inaugurated the Treatment Research Group and one of its terms of reference is to collaborate with similar working groups across the world. Now that they have started work, they will get in touch with the Americans and understand what they are doing and whether we have access to similar opportunity,” said Mr Chukwu.

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