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IPFS News Link • Drugs and Medications

ZMapp: The Experimental Ebola Treatment Explained

• http://www.popsci.com
Last Saturday in Monrovia, Liberia, neighbors stood in the street trying to block officials as the Liberian Ministry of Health brought 37 bodies of Ebola victims to a small plot of recently purchased land. In the midst of the burial, the excavator failed, leaving a few gaping holes in the ground and a pile of plastic covered shrouds. The bodies were left in open pits filled with water until Sunday, when a new delivery of cadavers was set to arrive. Plastic gloves and other equipment used during the burials were abandoned nearby, putting the town's residents at risk of infection.

Ebola is one of the world's most lethal diseases, causing vomiting, kidney and liver failure, and hemorrhagic bleeding. The fatality rate is up to 90 percent, and there's currently no cure. Infection is spread by direct contact with animals or people who have the disease, which is why proper quarantine methods are so important. Unfortunately, as the burial scene in Monrovia last weekend demonstrates, health officials have struggled to contain the disease.


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