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Liberia Gives 3 Doctors Experimental ZMapp Ebola Treatment

Liberia, the West African country with the highest death toll from the virus at 413, received three doses of the rare serum in a special consignment.
Health workers are handed personal protective gear by a team leader, right, before collecting the bodies of the deceased from streets in Monrovia, Liberia on Saturday.
Health workers are handed personal protective gear by a team leader, right, before collecting the bodies of the deceased from streets in Monrovia, Liberia on Saturday. Abbas Dulleh / AP

MONROVIA - Health care workers in Liberia have administered three doses of the rare, experimental drug ZMapp to three doctors suffering from Ebola, two medical workers in Monrovia told Reuters. Liberia, the West African country with the highest death toll from the virus at 413, received three doses of the serum in a special consignment this week. Doctors Zukunis Ireland and Abraham Borbor from Liberia and Dr. Aroh Cosmos Izchukwu from Nigeria are the first Africans to receive the treatment. The drug has been administered to two American healthcare workers and a Spanish priest, all previously working in Liberian hospitals. The U.S. workers' health improved but the priest died.

"Three doctors are currently being administered treatment with the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp. Treatment began on Thursday evening," said Dr. Billy Johnson, chief medical officer of John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia where two of the doctors served. A second healthcare worker at the Elwa center which is housing the sick doctors confirmed that they were on their third day of a six-day ZMapp treatment. Details of their condition aren’t known.

In-Depth

- Reuters