Dr. Francis Kateh receives an experimental Ebola vaccine as part of a
clinical trial that began in Liberia in February 2015. With the number
of new cases falling, some experts say it may be too late to gather
useful scientific data about potential Ebola drugs and vaccines.
(Zoom
Dosso /AFP/Getty Images)
7 comments:
This has one pro and one con:
The pro is:
Well, who wants Ebola? You don't want new cases every day, like the hollow tree article, and they are declining, so the chance of it spreading are also declining. This was an interesting article because Ebola is one of the current events that jeopardize lives. This pro is obviously a huge one, judging on how Ebola spreads like wildfire and when it dies down, it does not spread for a long time again, like an article we had in the past.
On the con side:
If they have no more cases, how will they find a cure? Cancer, for example, there is a rumor about the cure on one of the Bible pages. They can probably try hippo dung mixed with apple juice for a cure(no, I'm not an idiot, just exaggerating here) but when they have two or three cancer patients, it's not likely that the cures will work as well.
I liked this article because it explained the real severity of the Ebola outbreak, but now that it is dying down, I hope it stops completely. Hopefully, modern science can help the problem and help any patients with Ebola, so that traveling won't be a concern, and there won't be global crisis (in some parts of the world)
I totally agree with Grace on this.
My initial response to this was that I thought it was great that the number of cases of Ebola is declining. That's great news for the people who live close to where the outbreak was happening.
The bad part about this is that there are now not enough people to accurately test vaccines. So although the epidemic has slowed down, there is a risk that another outbreak will occur and people will not have been vaccinated.
If there ever is another outbreak, hopefully groups like the FDA, NIH, and WHO will have resolved their conflicts about how testing should go so that they can test vaccines quickly and find a cure. If they wait for another outbreak to figure out how to proceed, it will probably be too late to find a cure.
If these groups can agree on a procedure to follow, then this should also help for other viral outbreaks that happen around the world.
I agree with Owen and Grace on this matter, that it is great for people in West Africa that are near the outbreak, but also bad for a potential cure because if this virus resurfaces which in my opinion it probably will, we need to have a cure. I do think for the time being though that this is a pro for everyone, because it means that you don't have to worry about a loved one falling ill from Ebola for the time being. I do think that a lot of resources should go into updating the experimental drugs and testing it out on the ill. Overall, very interesting article hope to see more like it.
Well, this article was definately informative! Through reading this article I felt like I got a lot of perspectives on Ebola seizing to exist. I felt like there were a lot of mixed emotions and at times it was slightly confusing. While I understand that Ebola was a very large epidemic that put thousands of lives in danger, it is certainly I loss for science not being able to cure it and test possible cures. However, this article did not address the very likely sanario: What if Ebola cases pop up and the cures they have created are defective. Those few people are likely to die. Although I liked this article, I would have wanted it to list what would happen once Ebola cases come back and a cure is found (or not).
Firstly, I want to say that there is one very important flaw in the arguments that they posed. Grace and Owen failed to realize that, in actuality, we do not NEED a cure until the disease resurfaces. Think about it. Admittedly, we cannot attempt to eradicate the virus through pharmaceutical means until we have proven that our medicines are effective in doing so. However, when Ebola does become prevalent once again, we will have a sufficient sample size to test with. If we archive the current remedies, vaccines, and treatments, than we will be able to immediately resume experimentation. Without an imminent threat to West African settlements, we can bide our time and wait for the last vestiges of the disease to regain dangerous numbers. When they do, humanity's scientists can develop a cure, without and impediment or inhibition. I want to also add that, although Ebola may be declining, such a rapidly spreading ailment could rebound within weeks. We are in no way safe from this epidemic, and we should stay wary to the dangers it poses. Thank you for listening! Please reply with any rebuttals or additional information!
Though it is hard to deal with this but its just like Ebloa knew that a vaccine was on its way so it retreated. So that it could strike another time and catch humans by suprise. It is tough for scientist knowing that such a bad disease cannot be cured and that more lives would have to suffer if they were going to be able to cure it. So its good that its leaving but bad that we can't test it anymore to make sure the vaccine works. I hope that we can get the vaccine out before the outbreak leaves and then reappears later. Though it seems like that outcome is unavoidable.
This article proves that nothing is perfect. The pros are that ebola is declining and the people who DON'T have it are not at as high of a risk. Unfortunately for the people who DO have it because the disease rate of infection has gone down, don't have as much hope for finding a cure. Also, these potential cures costed the governments lots of money, and many large drug companies worked on finding a cure for the horrible disease. However, an upside to this is that if there is another Ebola outbreak, we will already have potential cures, and if those don't work, we will be able to keep improving them. I do agree with Conor that we will be able to bide our time while we find a potential cure for this disease. Great article!
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