UK Ebola victim treated with experimental ZMapp drug

2014-08-27 41

Inside this London hospital is the first Briton to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus.

Nurse William Pooley was volunteering in Sierra Leone at an Ebola clinic when he fell ill and tested positive for the disease, which has no known cure.

He has now been given the experimental drug known as ZMapp, and hospital officials say he's sitting up and talking.

It's the same medicine given to two American aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia. They have since recovered and been released from an Atlanta hospital.

Dr. Nathalie MacDermott spent three weeks in isolation after working with Ebola victims in Liberia. She says the Ebola threat is very real.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NATHALIE MACDERMOTT, PAEDIATRIC REGISTRAR AT NHS, SAYING:

"I am concerned the epidemic is not remotely under control; if anything, it's spiraling even further out of control."

Since March, more than 1,400 people have died from Ebola in West Africa.

The U.S. -based manufa