The United States of
America, yesterday, dashed the hope of an early cure for Ebola Virus victims in
Nigeria when it refused to share the trial drug with Nigeria. US President
Barak Obama says it would be premature to share the experimental drug with
Africa.
The Federal Government had
earlier reached out to the United States Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention, CDC, in Atlanta, to request for the drug for treatment of EVD
affected persons in Nigeria, but President Obama turned down the request,
saying it would be far more beneficial to focus on prevention instead.
Addressing the 50 African
leaders at the US-African Summit in Washington, President Obama stated that it
is “premature” to send an experimental medicine for the treatment of Ebola to
West Africa, as he lacked enough information to approve the drug that was
already being used on two American aid workers whose conditions were said to
have improved by varying degrees.
“We’ve got to let the
science guide us and I don’t think all the information is in on whether this
drug is helpful. The Ebola virus, both currently and in the past, is
controllable if you have a strong public health infrastructure in place.
“The countries affected are
the first to admit that what’s happened here is the public health systems have
been overwhelmed. They weren’t able to identify and then isolate cases quickly
enough.
“As a consequence, it
spread more rapidly than has been typical with the periodic Ebola outbreaks
that occurred previously,” he remarked.
Soon the strength of America's health infrastructure will be tested... Time will tell!
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