Red Bluff Daily News

August 12, 2014

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ByCiaranGiles AssociatedPress MADRID Inadevelopment that raises a host of ethical issues, Spain announced it had obtained a scarce U.S.- made experimental Ebola drug to treat a Spanish mis- sionary priest infected with the killer virus. So far the experimental drug ZMapp has been used to treat two infected Amer- icans and a Spaniard but no Africans for a hemorrhagic disease that has been ravag- ing West Africa for months and has killed about 50 per- cent of those it infects. That news came as medical ex- perts debated the ethical questions surrounding ex- perimental Ebola drugs and vaccines during a telecon- ference Monday organized by the U.N. health agency. There is no known cure or licensed treatment for Ebola, which has killed over 960 people in the current outbreak in West Africa. The World Health Organi- zation has called the Ebola outbreak — which emerged in Guinea in March and has since spread to Libe- ria, Sierra Leone and pos- sibly Nigeria — an inter- national health emergency and urged nations world- wide to battle the disease. The drug's maker, Mapp Pharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego, says on its web- site that "very little of the drug is currently available" and that it is cooperating with government agencies to increase production as quickly as possible. Nigerian officials say they had asked U.S. health authorities about getting the Ebola drug last week. "It certainly looks bad that only three Westerners have gotten the drug while most of the people with Eb- ola are African," said Art Caplan, director of bioeth- ics at NYU Langone Med- ical Center. He said the drugmaker must make its policy for distributing its treatment clear. "I don't think this scarce resource should just be given to who- ever is best connected." Still, Caplan said there might be a reasonable ex- planation for why only Westerners were given the drug, including the need for a sophisticated medical center to administer it and monitor the patient care- fully since the drug hasn't been tested in humans. But some Africans said giving the experimental drug only to Westerners was patently unfair. "There's no reason to try this medicine on sick white people and to ig- nore blacks," said Mar- cel Guilavogui, a pharma- cist in Conakry, Guinea. "We understand that it's a drug that's being tested for the first time and that could have negative side ef- fects. But we have to try it in blacks too." In Nigeria, which says it has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola, some people began demanding the serum on Twitter. The World Health Organization has not yet confirmed the Nigerian cases. In a statement, the Span- ish Health Ministry said the ZMapp drug was obtained in Geneva this weekend with permission from the company and brought to Madrid to treat Miguel Pa- jares. The 75-year-old priest was evacuated from Libe- ria and placed in isolation Thursday at Madrid's Car- los III Hospital. Two Americans diag- nosed with Ebola in Li- beria and evacuated back to the United States have been treated with the drug. One of them, Dr. Kent Brantly, said last week that his condition was improv- ing and the husband of the aid worker being treated with Brantly said the same thing. The drug is made at Kentucky BioProcessing for Mapp Biopharmaceuti- cal. A spokesman for Ken- tucky BioProcessing said last week that it complied with a request from the in- ternational relief group Sa- maritan's Purse and Emory University Hospital in At- lanta and provided a lim- ited amount of the drug. Brantly works for Samari- tan's Purse and both Amer- icans are being cared for now at Emory. It was not exactly clear how Spain got the drug and authorities refused to comment about any possi- ble costs involved. Geneva University Hospital told The Associated Press it was involved in getting the drug to Spain but would not elab- orate. In its statement, Spain's Health Ministry said "the medicine was imported from Geneva where there was one dose available in the context of an accord between the laboratory that developed the medicine, WHO and (Doctors With- out Borders)." It said Spain sought the drug under a Spanish law that permits the use of un- authorized medication for patients with a life-threat- ening illness who cannot be treated satisfactorily by au- thorized drugs. At least two countries in West Africa have expressed interest in the drug. Nige- ria's health minister, Ony- enbuchi Chukwu, said last week he had asked U.S. health officials about ac- cess to it but was told the manufacturer would have to agree. Guinea also said Monday it would like to have some of the drug. "Guinean authorities would naturally be inter- ested in having this med- icine," said Alhoussein Makanera Kake, spokes- man for the government committee fighting Ebola. Because the ZMapp drug has never been tested in hu- mans, scientists say there's no way to tell if it has made any difference to the two American aid workers who have received it. The drug is a mixture of three antibodies engi- neered to recognize Ebola and bind to infected cells so the immune system can kill them. Scientists culled antibodies from laboratory mice and ZMapp's maker now grows the antibodies in tobacco plants and then pu- rifies them. It takes several months to even produce a modest amount of the drug. The U.N. health agency planned to hold a news con- ference Tuesday to discuss the ethics meeting. In other Ebola develop- ments Monday: • A Catholic humanitar- ian group based in Spain said that another religious worker and colleague of the infected Spanish priest had died in from Ebola in Libe- ria. • Nigerian health au- thorities confirmed an- other Ebola case Monday, a nurse who had treated Pat- rick Sawyer, the Liberian- American who flew into Ni- geria and died last month. That brings the locally con- firmed Ebola cases in Nige- ria to 10, including the two who have died, Sawyer and another nurse. Nigerian au- thorities now have 177 con- tacts of Sawyer under sur- veillance. • Liberia announced that a donation of protective gear from China was ar- riving Monday. A shortage of full-body suits and even clean surgical gloves has left health workers exposed to the virus and prompted some to refuse to treat Eb- ola patients. • George Weah, a for- mer FIFA world player of the year from Liberia, has joined the efforts to spread awareness about the dis- ease and how to prevent it. He recorded a song titled "Ebola is real," and pro- ceeds are going to the Li- berian Health Ministry. TREATMENT Ethical questions emerge over who gets Ebola drug ASSOCIATEDPRESSPHOTOS In this photo taken Saturday, health workers wearing protective clothing and equipment await patients to screen against the deadly Ebola virus at the Kenema Government Hospital situated in the Eastern Province in Kenema, 186 miles from the capital city of Freetown, Sierra Leone. In this photo taken Saturday, volunteers prepare basic supplies donated to the Ebola treatment center by American donors, as they fight the deadly Ebola virus at the Kenema Government Hospital in Kenema. Associated Press DENVER A campaign to discourage Colorado youths from using marijuana titled "Don't Be a Lab Rat" will use human-sized rat cages and television and movie- theater ads, with the goal of telling teens there's un- certainty surrounding the effects of pot. The campaign that launched Monday moves away from trying to scare teens like some anti-meth commercials, The Denver Post reports. The $2 mil- lion campaign was commis- sioned by the governor's of- fice and uses money from legal settlements with vari- ous pharmaceutical compa- nies. A handful of rat cages will be displayed through- out Denver with campaign messaging, including one calling for volunteers for a lab experiment. "Volunteers needed," one of the messages will read. "Must have a developing brain. Must smoke weed. Must not be concerned about schizophrenia." One of the television and theater commercials will show teens lighting up in a smoke-filled car, with text on the screen referencing a Duke University study that argues teenage pot use re- sults in lasting drops in IQ. Teens will also be di- rected to a website, Dont- BeALabRat.com, to read studies on the possible con- sequences of pot use. "We don't say, 'It's ab- solute'; we say, 'This study exists. Some people dispute that. Make up your own mind,'" said Mike Sukle, who created the campaign. "At some point, they have to make up their mind. The days of 'Just Say No,' that was a fairly failed effort." Sukle has previously worked on anti-meth cam- paigns designed to shock teenagers to try to prevent them from using the drugs. But with acceptance of marijuana use increasing, the challenge for the cam- paign was bigger. "This was a tricky one," Sukle said. He said his team pitched possible messages to teens, such as telling them mar- ijuana could cost them a scholarship or get them in trouble. MARIJUANA $2 million anti-pot campaign warns of becoming 'lab rat' RANDAL S. ELLOWAY DDS IMPLANTDENTISTRY 2426 SO. MAIN ST., RED BLUFF 530-527-6777 Askyourselfthefollowingquestions: Are you missing one or more of your natural teeth? Do you have a complete or partial denture that is no longer completely comfortable? Have you ever been embarrassed by a denture or a bridge? 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