Ebola: an opportunity for a clinical trial?
BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g4997 (Published 06 August 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g4997
- Sophie Arie, freelance journalist, London
- sarie{at}bmj.com
A few weeks ago, most people worldwide had probably never heard of Ebola disease. Outbreaks were rare and usually quickly contained. Before the current epidemic, the disease had killed only 1590 people in total, most of them in remote parts of Uganda and what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, since it was discovered in 1976 (box 1).1
Box 1 Ebola timeline1
2014
1 August: Two infected US citizens are flown home from Liberia where they had been working with Ebola patients. One of them was reportedly given an unnamed experimental serum to treat the disease. Another infected colleague reportedly took a serum of antibodies taken from a survivor. At the time of publication, their condition was not known
31 July: WHO announces $100m to upscale the effort to contain the disease, and secretary general Margaret Chan warns of “catastrophic numbers of dead” if the disease is not brought under control. WHO staff and aid agencies on the ground say there are signs in some areas that numbers of new infections are beginning to fall. In total, 729 people are confirmed dead. The same day, the US announces the bringing forward of a clinical trial of a possible vaccine
25 July: Sierra Leone’s top Ebola doctor, Sheik Umar Khan. succumbs to the disease. More than 100 medical workers are known to be among the dead
23 June: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) declares that the outbreak is “out of control,” with more than 60 hotspots where the cases have been reported. 337 people were confirmed dead at that stage
20 July: A man arrives at Nigeria’s Lagos airport …