The two American missionaries infected with Ebola in Liberia have received an experimental serum, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, one of the county’s top infectious disease experts.
Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol of Samaritan’s Purse took the experimental treatment in Liberia, and Brantly reportedly saw his condition reverse within the hour.
However Fauci told Here & Now’s Robin Young that he’s skeptical of so-called “medical miracles.”
CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, who is an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine, first reported on the results of the serum, which had only been tested in monkeys previously.
Brantly is now being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, and Writebol is expected to arrive for treatment there tomorrow.
Fauci said a vaccine is also being developed. He said human trials should begin in September, and a vaccine could be ready for market by the end of 2015.
More than 1,300 people have been stricken by Ebola in West Africa, and nearly 730 have died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierre Leone.
Guest
- Anthony Fauci, M.D., immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
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