Should Britain Be Experimenting With An Ebola Vaccine?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ebola/11061190/Ebola-vaccine-to-be-tested-on-British-volunteers-next-month.html

We are expected to police the world and now attend to it's ills, should it not be Africa that is experimenting for a drug to combat a disease started in Africa?

Will the 'guinea pigs' be British Africans or White British, and to all those who think it a good idea, I ask would you volunteer?

/// The vaccine being developed by GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health is being fast-tracked with a £2.8m grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development. ///

Air France and British Airways have suspended all flights to these African countries, why don't the Government now ban all flights into the UK from these countries?

[Bazile]

//Should Britain Be Experimenting With An Ebola Vaccine?//

What if someone here contracts Ebola ?

[jim360]

Obviously as we have the resources and, bluntly, Africa doesn't. And if after all the disease did arrive here we'd be stupid to have done no research that could save British lives as well as African ones.

[Zacs-Master]

Also, If GSK patent the drug in the UK, there should be lots of tax generated for the Government coffers.

[anotheoldgit]

I was under the impression that there was already a US dug.

[Baldric]

Yes, I think we should, with the Governments lax attitude to Border Control and allowing the RAF to import a known case, it's only a matter of time... . .

[jim360]

Simce that drug is still only experimental (albeit with some promising results) we can't and shouldn't stop research and instead rely on that drug. And anyway the second drug might be better in some cases...

Why is this even up for debate?

[Bazile]

//Why is this even up for debate? //

Because of the African angle of course - your'e silly jim

[Sqad]

AOG....."drug" therapy and vaccines are two different concept.

Drugs "kill" the germ and vaccines "boost" the immune system.

Drugs need to be safe.....killing the infection as well as killing the host is not good "business."

There is no established drug treatment.

The vaccines that are being developed in Oxford do not contain the live Ebola virus, just the active protein and the volonteers will not be exposed to the Ebola virus.

Yes......studies should be ongoing.

[2sp_]

^Wot Sqad said.

And why should it matter if the volunteers are "British Africans or White British"?

[ToraToraTora]

of course we should, this and future viruses/bacteria are an extreme threat to mankind, we need to be able to fight them. I just wonder when an airbourne version of this will evolve then we are all brown bread! I suppose it could be natures way of giving up on us as a species and starting again.

[Sqad]

\\\\ I suppose it could be natures way of giving up on us as a species and starting again.\\\

LOL...;-)

[stuey]

I do hope that nobody suggests that this is another black plague.

[anotheoldgit]

Sqad

/// Vaccines that are being developed in Oxford do not contain the live Ebola virus, just the active protein and the volonteers will not be exposed to the Ebola virus. ///

As a mere lay person I bow to your expertise, but do you really believe some will be tempted to become guinea pigs?

Would you?

[Sqad]

AOG....LOL.....no I wouldn't, but if i were an impecunious student, I might well volunteer.

[anotheoldgit]

2sp_

/// And why should it matter if the volunteers are "British Africans or White British"? ///

Just an innocent query seeing that the disease started in Africa, so perhaps Africans are more susceptible to contacting this disease.

Why do some continuously wish to point out that I have some kind of racial problem over this, it would appear that one cannot discuss anything regarding to Africa without receiving a 'racist' label.

[Mamyalynne]

Yes, Britain should be experimenting in this field.

Drug Trials rarely struggle for volunteers.

[anotheoldgit]

Sqad

/// AOG....LOL.....no I wouldn't, but if i were an impecunious student, I might well volunteer. ///

Even if I were, I don't think I would take the risk to 'prostitute' myself in such a way.

[2sp_]

AOG, at no point did I accuse you of being racist. I was merely asking why it would make a difference. I don't know if people from certain ethnic backgrounds are more susceptible to Ebola.

That's why I asked "why should it matter".

If you want to look for offence where there is none, be my guest.

[anotheoldgit]

2sp_

Then I am sorry, and I do apologise to you, it was because Bazile's comment which made me see red, and I am afraid you took the brunt of my anger.