Maker of experimental Ebola drug scales up

Oct 12 2014

The manufacturer of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp says it has put other business on hold since August to boost production of the medication. Meanwhile, news outlets look at the government's authority to screen airline travelers, the House action to release additional funding for disease-fighting efforts and the Dallas hospital's defense of its treatment of the West African man who died of the disease this week.

The Washington Post: Small Drugmakers Try To Scale Up To Meet Ebola Crisis
The manufacturer of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp said Friday that it is trying to squeeze more production out of the tobacco plants used to create the medication and develop other ways of making the drug in an effort to boost supply. The 32,000-square-foot facility in Kentucky where the monoclonal antibodies are created in specially grown tobacco plants has put all other business on hold since August and is devoting its entire capacity to producing the Ebola medication, according to Mapp Biopharmaceutical (Bernstein and Dennis, 10/9).

The Associated Press: Ebola Screening Measures Rest On Federal Law
The Obama administration's plans to screen certain airline passengers for exposure to Ebola are based on the Constitution and long-established legal authority that would almost certainly stand up in court if challenged, public health experts say. … Though airline passengers may find it intrusive to have their temperature taken or directed against their wishes to seek medical care, the government has wide power when it comes to public health and border control, experts say, including quarantine and isolation. Courts would likely defer to the judgment of public health professionals in the event someone sued over what they saw as an intrusion of civil liberties (10/10).

The Washington Post: The Ominous Math Of The Ebola Epidemic
When the experts describe the Ebola disaster, they do so with numbers. The statistics include not just the obvious ones, such as caseloads, deaths and the rate of infection, but also the ones that describe the speed of the global response. Right now, the math still favors the virus (Achenbach, Sun and Dennis, 10/9).

Politico: House Moves On Ebola Funding
After briefings this week, House Republicans signed off Thursday on the release of $700 million more in funding requested by the Obama administration in support of fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Together with the $50 million already approved, that gives the green light to about three-quarters of the $1.06 billion sought by the Defense Department, which has taken the lead for the U.S. in providing hospital equipment, personnel and airlift capacity (Rogers, 10/9).

Los Angeles Times: Dallas Hospital Defends Its Treatment Of Ebola Patient Who Died
Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan was treated professionally and compassionately without regard for his nationality or ability to pay, the hospital that treated him said Thursday, one day after he died. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas was responding to complaints from those close to the victim that Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, was not treated as well as three white American missionaries who contracted the deadly virus in West Africa but recovered after treatment in Atlanta and Omaha (Hennessey-Fiske and Muskal, 10/9).