Question: have you found the cure for ebola?

Rebecca Jones answered on 15 Jun 2015:

Due to the recent outbreak of Ebola people are now trying to make cures for it. Before the outbreak, there were some cases of ebola but not enough to warrant a wide scale vaccine. However, with the outbreak and it spreading so fast and killing so many people a vaccine was definitely needed. Scientists in the USA have designed a vaccine called ZMAPP which has worked well on infected people. However, what would work best in the countries infected would be better information about the disease. In the countries in Africa where the disease hit it spread very rapidly and this was partly due to the culture in Africa. When people die they spend a lot of time washing and cleansing the body before burying it which puts those involved (normally most family members) in contact with the infected person. And this is how it is spread, through body and fluid contact. Therefore, it spread so fast as other family members would then become ill.

So, although a vaccine would be great, i think the reduction in ebola cases could also occur from more information in developing countries about the disease and a change in cultures to minimise it spreading.

With regards to a complete cure, i don’t think this is likely as bats and other animals carry the virus and incubate it, passing it on to humans when there is contact between the two. Therefore, all these animals would have to be killed for a full cure, which wouldn’t be very cost efficient.