The World Health Organisation (WHO) has ruled that it is ethical to use experimental drug, Zmapp, with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as the potential treatment or prevention for Ebola Virus Disease, provided certain conditions are met.
WHO had, on August 11, convened a consultation to consider and assess the ethical implications for clinical decision-making of the potential use of unregistered interventions.
However, the panel reached consensus and ruled in favour of what it called “the particular circumstances of this outbreak”, while proffering that certain conditions are met.
Ethical criteria must guide the provision of such interventions. These include transparency about all aspects of care, informed consent, freedom of choice, confidentiality, respect for the person, preservation of dignity and involvement of the community.
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday convened a meeting of ethicists and scientists to discuss the use of experimental medicines in treating Ebola, three days after the agency declared the current outbreak of the disease in West Africa an international public health emergency.
WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl, in a press statement, said that the recent treatment of two health workers infected with the Ebola virus with experimental medicine had raised questions about whether medicine that had never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak, and given the extremely limited amount of medicine available, if it is used, who should receive it.
ECOWAS official dies after contact with Sawyer
An ECOWAS Commission Protocol Assistant, Lagos Liaison Office, Mr Jatto Abdulqudir, who helped the late Liberian Ebola victim, Mr Patrick Sawyer, while in Nigeria is dead.
Aged 36, the late Abdulqudir was among those who assisted Sawyer, the Liberian delegate to a regional meeting who died from the Ebola virus disease at a Lagos hospital on July 25, 2014. Abdulqudir had been under quarantine following the sad incident.
Announcing the death of Abdulqudir, the ECOWAS Commission expressed its gratitude to Nigerian government authorities and others who contributed to managing the late official while under quarantine. The Commission also condoled with Abdulqudir’s family and colleagues and prayed for the repose of his soul.
Spanish priest infected with Ebola virus in Liberia dies
A 75-year-old Spanish priest infected with Ebola virus while working in Liberia, Miguel Pajares, yesterday died in an isolation ward in Madrid — the first European death from the outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa and the first known death on European soil, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
JNI Stresses Personal Hygiene
As part of effort to raise the consciousness of Nigerians to the outbreak of Ebola virus in the country, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) yesterday appealed to the Muslim community to imbibe the culture of personal hygiene as well as proper sanitation.
The JNI, in a statement by it secretar-general, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, Islam is a religion of cleanliness.“Alas, in Islam eating of monkeys had already been discouraged (Makruh), according to many scholars of Islamic jurisprudence.
Lagos May Use Public Health Law To detain Ebola Virus Victims
*As persons under watch now 200
Lagos State government has said it may be compelled to invoke the 2003 Public Health Law to apprehend any person that refuses to be quarantined over Ebola fever.
The state government is mulling this measure, as fresh facts emerged yesterday that more than 200 persons who had primary and secondary contact with the index case are currently being observed and watched to ascertain their health status.
The state governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, while giving the update at a meeting with the environmental health workers from the 57 local councils at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa, said they may be forced to take such a measure if necessary.
“I have directed the health commissioner to do so if necessary, to compulsorily apprehend person suspected to constitute danger to the society because he or she can lead to the spread of epidemic in the state,” he said, explaining that it is a 2003 law and if there is need, “we will exercise the power in the public health law.”
Special Adviser to Lagos State governor on Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, warned against touching corpses dumped on the road, adding that when such corpses are seen, contact should be made with the Ministry of Health or the State Environmental Health Management Unit (SEHMU).
Cameroon Fears Ebola Spread From Nigeria
The Ebola scare has gripped Cameroon following reports that cases of the disease were imported from neighbouring Nigeria, Voice of America (VOA) reports.
Cameroon’s minister of health, Andre Mama Fouda has refuted the allegations, saying no case had been reported.
Stop Eating Suya, Expert Advises Nigerians
A consultant obstetrician and gnaecologist, Dr Madziga Isa, yesterday advised Nigerians to suspend the eating of roasted meat, locally known as Suya, to guard against contracting Ebola virus.
Isa, an official of NNPC Staff Clinic, also said Nigerians should avoid fish and bush meat, avoid unsafe sex, as well as wash their hands regularly as part of precautionary measures against infection.
He made the call in Kaduna during a public awareness lecture with theme titled “Ebola: Deadly, Untreatable but Preventable”, organised by the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).
FG, States Approach To Checking Ebola Unconstitutional – Falana
Human Rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has faulted the federal government and states’ approach to fighting Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), saying there is no legal backing in the constitution of Nigeria to support its state of emergency pronouncement on the disease.
According to him, the government is empowered by law to quarantine such people as EVD carriers before any surveillance can be done.
On President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of state of emergency on the disease, he said it was not backed by any provision of the constitution.
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