After the Scientific Committee on Emerging & Zoonotic Diseases met on Tuesday for an update on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Controller for the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), Dr. Leung Ting-hung, said that Hong Kong’s Ebola preventive and control measures are in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, despite plans to use unproven cancer and infertility drugs in the absence of a vaccine.
Dr. Leung also confirmed that the CHP has been in talks with the manufacturers of four drugs and three vaccines and is considering different options, reports the Standard.
There is no cure for Ebola at the moment, but the WHO decided last week that, due to the urgency and scope of this particular outbreak, “it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects” as treatment or prevention. Great, as long as it’s ethical. That’s reassuring!
Zmapp is an experimental drug that has not yet been tested in human clinical trials, but that has shown promise in treating rhesus macaques (monkeys) infected with Ebola. Two US aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia were given Zmapp earlier this month and have since shown remarkable improvement, reports the BBC.
But because Zmapp is still under development and is not yet produced in high quantities, it will not be available for use in the city.
The CHP therefore said that it would instead employ a drug currently used for breast cancer and infertility. The drug in question is an oestrogen receptor antagonist, meaning that it inhibits oestrogen’s effect on DNA. According to Healthline, such drugs may prevent the Ebola infection by stopping the virus from entering cells. It’s been tested against Ebola in mice, but not in humans. However, the drug is considered safe to use for humans to treat breast cancer or infertility, so fingers crossed!
According to the Standard, the CHP was also considering beta interferon, a drug normally used for treating multiple sclerosis. This would only serve to delay death in Ebola patients, however.
