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Ten Facts on Ebola experimental drugs

Ebola Virus

The contest to develop an effective treatment or vaccine against Ebola is on as the largest epidemic in history continues to spread in West Africa. In the interim, questions about whether unproven treatments are appropriate to use, and who should get them, are inspiring passion and resentment.

Recently, an Iowa-based company called NewLink said it has enough doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to begin clinical trials in the next few weeks, if such trials are approved. Meanwhile, a shipment of 800 to 1,000 doses of the vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, were delivered to health officials in Liberia, as a donation from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The Canadian agency developed the vaccine but says its stockpile is gone.

As at August 12, 2014 at 8:30AM, Mapp Biopharmaceuticals Inc. says the available supply of Zmapp has been exhausted as its entire stock of the experimental drug ZMapp is been delivered to health officials in Liberia. Left uncertain is which individuals will receive any of the drugs. As we trail these and other advancements, here are 10 facts to bear in mind about Ebola and experimental drugs:

1. Ebola is not an air borne disease and may be acquired upon contact with body or bodily fluids of an infected persons or animal.

2. There is no approved or scientifically proven treatment for Ebola, and no vaccine. Whether the setting is primitive or in a developed country's advanced hospital, existing treatment is primarily supportive: giving fluids, carefully monitoring vital signs and responding to acute medical crises.

3. There are several experimental drugs in development, with the potential to be useful against Ebola. The market for these drugs is small -- Ebola is a rare disease, almost completely confined to poor countries -- so funding for drug development has come largely from government agencies in the United States and Canada.

4. Please note "treatment" and "Vaccine" are not interchangeable terms. A vaccine is given to avert infection, whereas treatment generally refers to a drug given to a patient who has developed symptoms. ZMapp, given to American medical workers Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly when they were seriously ill, is not a vaccine.

5. No Ebola treatment has been formally tested in humans with the illness. ZMapp has been given to at least three people in the current outbreak (the two Americans and a Spanish priest); experts say they are studying the cases, but there is not enough evidence to say whether the drug will be effective in others.

6. At least one Ebola therapy (TKM-Ebola) has been tested for safety in a small clinical trial; it was given to healthy human volunteers to see if they suffered any adverse effects. To date there have not been serious side effects.

7. A handful of potential treatments have been tested in primates that have been infected with Ebola. Macaque monkeys are the usual test subjects.

8. The U.S. National Institutes of Health says a safety trial of an experimental vaccine could begin as early as September. Other companies are also preparing for new clinical trials.

9. At least one group of researchers -- at the University of Texas Medical Branch -- is working with a $26 million award from NIH to test the possibility of combining multiple therapies, similar to the HIV-fighting "cocktail" approach.

10. According to Wikipedia writings, The Ebola virus cannot survive on surface in contact with some lipids solvent such as some alcohol-based products, detergents, sodium hypochlorite (bleach) or calcium hypochlorite (bleach) or calcium hypochlorite (bleaching powder), and other suitable disinfectants at appropriate concentrations can be used as disinfectants.