charmaceutical companies are unwilling to invest in vaccines and research to cure the deadly Ebola disease because it is only killing Africans, a leading UK doctor has claimed.
The President of the UK Faculty of Public Health, Prof. John Ashton, has claimed no cure for the disease has been discovered because it so far has on
ly affected powerless minorities.
He likened the response to that of Aids, for which treatments were developed only when it started affecting Western countries.
The current Ebola outbreak – which has no vaccine, no cure and kills up to 90 per cent of victims – is currently ravaging the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia.
There have been 729 deaths from 1,329 confirmed cases of Ebola in this year’s epidemic – making it the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
Writingin the Independent on Sunday
‘We must also tackle the scandal of the unwillingness of the pharmaceutical industry to invest in research to produce treatments and vaccines, something they refuse to do because the numbers involved are, in their terms, so small and don’t justify the investment.
‘This is the moral bankruptcy of capitalism acting in the absence of an ethical and social framework.’
WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, has also warned the virus is currently moving faster than efforts to control it.
She said, ‘This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives, severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries.’
Speaking at a meeting in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, she told the presidents of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast that the virus could be stopped.
But she said that cultural practices such as traditional burials were a significant cause of its spread.
Meanwhile, Emirates, the Mideast’s largest airline, said today it had halted flights to Guinea because of concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus.
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Point of correction! Nigeria is not one of the countries ravaged by Ebola.
ReplyDeleteIf this is true, then these guys need an upgrade of their intellectual facilities. Who told them that Ebola will not get to other parts of the world. It's just a matter of time. Moreover Africans may exhibit more relative resistance to the virus more than the westerners. If & when it gets to the west,who knows if the level of devastation wouldn't surpass that obtained in Africa. We watch and wait!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha oh so the western thinks this outbreak of EBOLA will not get to them, they have to watch and see,this is problem for the world not only west Africa. They have to join hand together and fight against this virus.
ReplyDeleteHey correct your common,EBOLA have not infected any Nigerian citizen living in Nigeria. So the outbreak the virus is not in yet in Nigeria. So please do not mentioned Nigeria
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