Ebola drugs are in the works

Scientists racing to develop something that will stop the largest Ebola epidemic in history are trying a variety of experimental drugs on patients. Without a cure, the disease has killed at least 3,431 people and infected 7,470 at last count. The first American known to have come down with the disease on U.S. soil, Thomas Duncan, may be receiving a drug called brincidofovir, according to his nephew Joe Weeks. The biopharmaceutical company Chimerix got approval from the FDA for emergency use on Duncan. Duncan is currently in critical condition in Dallas. The experimental antiviral drug was being developed to treat life-threatening viruses including smallpox. But antiviral drugs can be used to treat a wide variety of diseases. This is the same drug that was originally denied to Josh Hardy, a 7-year-old who was treated for cancer and then developed an adenovirus that nearly killed him. In March, his parents launched a social media campaign to...