Family Questions Texas Hospital Care Of Ebola Victim

By Lincoln Depradine
Pride Contributing Writer

The death in Dallas, Texas, of Liberian Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has left many questioning whether he received the same level of care as two white Americans, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who were given an experimental drug and recovered from the deadly viral disease.

Brantly and Writebol had both received the experimental drug ZMapp.

Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian said ZMapp wasn’t given to Duncan because it hasn’t been available since August 12. Instead, Duncan was given an experimental treatment, the antiviral drug Brincidofovir. But it was administered many days after he was put into isolation.

“After consulting with experts across the country, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the investigative drug was administered as soon as his physicians determined that his condition warranted it, and as soon as it could be obtained,” Texas Health Presbyterian said. “Mr. Duncan was the first Ebola patient to receive this drug.”

Duncan’s girlfriend, Louise Troh, and other family members, had asked why doctors waited four days to treat Duncan with the experimental drug when another patient who had been successfully treated for the virus in the United States seemed to have received drug treatment “immediately”.

“To think that Duncan was there at the hospital and nothing was being done, it seemed unfair to her,” said Troh’s pastor, George Mason, who was with her when she learned of Duncan’s death.

But, Texas Health Presbyterian claims there have been “some misconceptions” about the care given to Duncan.

“The nurses, doctors, and team who cared for him, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, grieve the loss of Mr. Duncan,” a hospital statement said.

“Our care team provided Mr. Duncan with the same high level of attention and care that would be given any patient, regardless of nationality or ability to pay for care,” it added. “In this case that included a four-hour evaluation and numerous tests. We have a long history of treating a multicultural community in this area.”

Meanwhile, clinical trials are now starting for an experimental made-in-Canada Ebola vaccine, federal health minister, Rona Ambrose, said, on Monday.

Results of the first phase of the trials are expected in December, and the hope is the vaccine can be deployed shortly thereafter.

The Canadian vaccine was developed by researchers at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory. Ambrose said it has been “100 percent effective” in preventing the spread of the Ebola virus when tested on animals.

The government of Canada owns the intellectual property associated with the vaccine and has licensed the rights to a small American company, NewLink Genetics, through its subsidiary BioProtection Systems.

A second experimental vaccine is being produced by pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, alongside the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and human trials have already started in Africa.

There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Canada.

On Tuesday, Facebook founder, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, announced they are donating US$25 million to the Centers for Disease Control foundation to fight the Ebola crisis.

“We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome.”

The health agency has hundreds of staffers working on Ebola and has sent more than 100 experts to the virus zone — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

The CDC foundation, which has sent more than 100 experts to the Ebola hot spots of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, collects funds for supplies that include personal protective equipment, ready-to-eat meals, generators, vehicles and motorcycles, and thermal scanners to detect fever.