Reproductive health
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Reproductive health · Dec 2017
Case ReportsNubia's mother: being pregnant in the time of experimental vaccines and therapeutics for Ebola.
During the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treated Ebola-positive pregnant women in its Ebola Treatment Centers (ETCs). For pregnant women with confirmed Ebola virus disease, inclusion in clinical vaccine/drug/therapeutic trials was complicated. Despite their extremely high Ebola-related mortality in previous epidemics (89-93%) and a neonatal mortality of 100%, theoretical concerns about safety of vaccines and therapeutics in pregnancy were invoked, limiting pregnant women's access to an experimental live attenuated vaccine and brincidofovir, an experimental antiviral. ⋯ The infant, born in the ETC, tested positive for Ebola at birth. The infant received ZMapp (under MEURI access outside of the clinical trial), an experimental drug GS5734, and a buffy coat of an Ebola survivor, and survived. Though the infant did have access to experimental therapeutics within 24 h of birth, access to other experimental compounds for her mother was denied, raising serious ethical concerns.