U.S. health regulators on Wednesday authorized the use of an Ebola
diagnostic test developed by the Pentagon to help contain the world's
worst outbreak of the deadly virus.
The move was one of a number of steps taken by the U.S. government this week to address the highly contagious disease that has killed more than 930 people in Africa and sickened hundreds more, including two Americans being treated in Atlanta.
The diagnostic test was authorized for use abroad on military
personnel, aid workers and emergency responders in laboratories
designated by the Department of Defense to respond to the Ebola
outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
The test, called DoD EZ1 Real-time RT-PCR Assay, is designed for use on individuals who have symptoms of Ebola infection, who are at risk for exposure or who may have been exposed. It can take as long as 21 days for symptoms to appear after infections.
The agency can evoke emergency authorization for a medical product it has not approved when there are no adequate alternatives.
There is no known cure for Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that has overwhelmed rudimentary healthcare systems and prompted the deployment of troops to quarantine the worst-hit areas in the remote border region of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization is meeting in Geneva to consider declaring an international health emergency.
U.S. health officials met on Monday in Washington with Guinea President Alpha Conde and senior officials from Liberia and Sierra Leone to discuss the crisis and identify what kind of help they most needed, a State Department official said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, met with the leaders on the sidelines of an African Summit.
Frieden was to testify on Thursday at a congressional subcommittee hearing on "Combating the Ebola Threat," along with representatives from the State Department's Africa bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development...http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/07/us-allows-use-ebola-test-overseas-as-crisis-deepens/
The move was one of a number of steps taken by the U.S. government this week to address the highly contagious disease that has killed more than 930 people in Africa and sickened hundreds more, including two Americans being treated in Atlanta.
The test, called DoD EZ1 Real-time RT-PCR Assay, is designed for use on individuals who have symptoms of Ebola infection, who are at risk for exposure or who may have been exposed. It can take as long as 21 days for symptoms to appear after infections.
The agency can evoke emergency authorization for a medical product it has not approved when there are no adequate alternatives.
There is no known cure for Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that has overwhelmed rudimentary healthcare systems and prompted the deployment of troops to quarantine the worst-hit areas in the remote border region of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization is meeting in Geneva to consider declaring an international health emergency.
U.S. health officials met on Monday in Washington with Guinea President Alpha Conde and senior officials from Liberia and Sierra Leone to discuss the crisis and identify what kind of help they most needed, a State Department official said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, met with the leaders on the sidelines of an African Summit.
Frieden was to testify on Thursday at a congressional subcommittee hearing on "Combating the Ebola Threat," along with representatives from the State Department's Africa bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development...http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/07/us-allows-use-ebola-test-overseas-as-crisis-deepens/
