Drug Trials Begin as Ebola Plays Hide-and-Seek

January 8, 2015

(New Scientist) – The highest-profile person to receive an experimental Ebola drug is currently the British nurse Pauline Cafferkey. She is also being treated with plasma from a former Ebola patient. But she is by no means alone. Trials of two experimental drugs have just started among Ebola patients in Liberia and Guinea, and preparations for a third in Sierra Leone will start next week. However, as the epidemic fluctuates, scientists in some areas are in the unexpected position of potentially not having enough sick people to test the drug on.