Here's Everything We Know About The 'Secret Serum' Used To Treat An American With Ebola

BI ^ | 8-4-2014 | Kevin Loria

[blam]

Kevin Loria
August. 4, 2014

Both of the Ebola-infected U.S. citizens in Liberia received a rare dose of what news reports called a "secret serum" to treat the virus before being transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, according to a CNN report. And while some people do fight off the disease on their own, in the case of the two Americans, that experimental serum may have saved their lives.

As Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol waited in a Liberian hospital, someone from the National Institutes of Health reached out to Samaritan's Purse, one of the two North Carolina-based Christian relief groups the two were working with, and offered to have vials of an experimental drug called ZMapp sent to Liberia.

Although the Food and Drug Administration does allow experimental drugs to occasionally be distributed in life-threatening circumstances without approval under the expanded access or "compassionate use" conditions, it's not yet clear whether that approval was granted in this case or not.

A spokesperson for the FDA told Business Insider that federal law and FDA regulations prohibit them from commenting on specific products, is considered confidential.

An Emergency Treatment

However it was approved, three frozen vials of ZMapp, a drug being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, were flown to Liberia and arrived the morning of Thursday July 31.

The serum needed eight to 10 hours to thaw.

Brantly, who had been sick for nine days already, reportedly had asked that Writebol receive the first dose, as he was younger and thought he had a better chance of surviving. (It's unclear from the CNN story why the doses apparently were not all ready at the same time.)

But his condition worsened as the first dose thawed, and CNN reports that he told his doctors, "I am going to die."

(snip)

[a fool in paradise]

I’d recommend taking reishi mushroom tea as well to boost immune systems. Garlic too.

And there was only a half sarc in my electrolytes quote.

Yes, some of the rehydration fluids probably resemble “pedialyte” (or however it is spelled).

[bert]

wonder if it is more powerful then the anti aging serum touted by Oil of Olay

[bgill]

First, he was the hero giving the only vial of serum to Writbol while he was given a tranfusion from a 14 year old survivor who he happened to have treated. Now, he got the first vial of three serums. Which is it? Who’s lying? Why the lies? Who benefits from the lies?

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

BTTT, to reread later too here.

[Hot Tabasco]

Both of the Ebola-infected U.S. citizens in Liberia received a rare dose of what news reports called a "secret serum"

And just WHO told us these two folks had contracted Ebola?

Sorry, I'm not buying this story at all......The more it's broadcast the more it becomes suspicious.

[MarMema]

I know. I thought some about that too...

[Jedidah]

How about it’s all true, the situation changing according to circumstances, medics scrambling to triage and apply whatever might buy more time and keep these courageous Americans alive? Brantly first insists that Writebol get the serum, then when his condition worsens, doctors decide he must get a dose.

There’s always honest confusion in breaking news. They call it the “fog of war.”

The big story here is really not Brantly and Writebol, but rather how much the world stands to gain through their experience as human guinea pigs.

From what we’re hearing today about Kent Brantley’s medical condition last week prior to receiving the experimental dose (gasping for air, beginning to hemorrhage, telling his caregivers that he thought he was dying, etc.), that serum may be the long-sought treatment for this awful disease.

And the victims knew they were risking their lives by agreeing to take it.

Here’s hoping that Dr. Brantly and Mrs. Writebol continue to heal and that more extensive trials prove the treatment is safe and effective on a broad scale. Kudos who the researchers who developed it, private or government-funded.