Another BBC Appearance
I appeared live on the BBC World Service (twice) in the wee hours (UK time) of Aug. 23, to discuss the ebola virus. At the main page you can find a few prime essays that explore this topic. Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have made progress on an anti-ebola drug. It would be the first such drug if human trials prove successful. In 2004, I wrote in JAMA about the same researchers’ efforts to produce an ebola vaccine – efforts that continue. The bottom line with ebola is that it’s very tough to treat, and because it causes so few deaths worldwide, there’s no drug company invested in it. So most ebola research is conducted by the U.S. military, which is concerned that the virus could be weaponized and used by bioterrorists.
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