Ebola: US has not answered Nigeria drug request
Nigeria is yet to receive official response from the US after requesting for the experimental drug Zmapp administered to two American doctors being treated for Ebola virus fever, health authorities have said. The request was made yesterday as officials confirmed the first Nigerian dead from the virus, and infection in five other people in primary […]
Nigeria is yet to receive official response from the US after requesting for the experimental drug Zmapp administered to two American doctors being treated for Ebola virus fever, health authorities have said.
The request was made yesterday as officials confirmed the first Nigerian dead from the virus, and infection in five other people in primary contact with the late Liberian American Patrick Sawyer.
We have not received any response from them,” said health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.
“We have made the request…we believe they will response to us, but we know that this is still an experimental drug, some of the data required is now being collected, but they are now using it on people.”
He was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of the Defence Identification Centre at the Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja.
He added: “We are not completely sure yet of its efficacy, we are not yet completely sure if there are side effects that will outweigh its benefits.”
He further said, “If it’s an experimental drug, which means it is not being produced in commercial quantities, so obviously given the demand all over the world, maybe there will be challenges about supply but we await their formal response.”
Combat casualty
Earlier in a prepared speech, the minister described the military DNA Identification Centre as a first of its kind in West Africa.
He said it eliminates the difficulty of identifying severe damage to bodies of soldiers who die in combat.
Chukwu said, “The establishment of the Defence Identification Centre aligns the Nigeria Military with the current best practices in combat
casualty identification and provides general identification banks on serving
and retired personnel.”
In his welcome remarks, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh said the establishment of the DNA data bank at the
Defence Identification Centre provides accurate identification of serving
personnel and their corpse in case of accidental death.
The CDS also said the Centre will enable paternity test for troops, forensic test of crime suspects or victims and research into development of disease prevention and risk reduction programs.