Stemming from West Africa's months-long Ebola virus outbreak crisis, the World Health Organization opened a two-day conference in Accra, Ghana. In the last week alone, 129 people have died as a result of the virus that had already prompted international officials to seek "drastic action."
The conference began on Wednesday and includes 11 of the top African health ministers, representatives from airlines as well as mining companies, Ebola survivors, and various organizations and groups throughout the world that are providing money, supplies, or medical staff to nations experiencing outbreaks. The meeting will focus on mitigating the virus' spread while searching for new ways to eliminate it.
The total number of deaths in the countries where the virus has been reported (Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia) climbed to 467 as of June 30, according to the WHO. With 759 confirmed/suspected cases in these three countries, the outbreak is the biggest in history. And because of the recent surge in cases and deaths, the WHO is seeking the help of field epidemiologists, laboratory experts, clinical management experts, infection and prevention control experts, logisticians, and social mobilization and risk communications teams.
Jeremy Farrar, a disease expert, believes experimental Ebola drugs should be used to help cure patients and halt the spread. The virus' mortality rate is extremely high and circumstances have yet to significantly improve since outbreaks began in February (the first case was documented in December).
"It's ridiculous that we haven't got these (experimental) products out of labs and animal trials and into human testing, and at least offered to people," said Farrar, a professor of tropical medicine and director of the Wellcome Trust charity, in this Reuters news article. "If you had a 60 percent chance of dying tomorrow, and there was something that had been tested in healthy volunteers (but not yet tried in patients or approved), would you take it?"
This option may be considered -especially after Farrar openly criticized global health authorities for their handling of the situation, which has only worsened. In addition to current treatments and quarantine efforts by the WHO and Medecins Sans Frontieres (also known as Doctors Without Borders), the experimental vaccines and drugs may be the only things to help at this point, which is considered the most complicated ever due to its presence in urban and rural areas.
You can read more about the Ebola virus outbreak and the WHO conference in this Aljazeera news article.
