Here’s the current status of new drugs to fight Ebola virus and what works best now

Experts will be meeting this week at the World Health Organization (WHO) to discuss the role of new drugs and vaccines to help control the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Last month, the WHO said that it is ethical to provide experimental drugs and vaccines for Ebola, but that there’s also a “moral duty” to conduct clinical trials of these experimental drugs and vaccines to determine whether they’re safe and effective. At the same time, a new study released last week shows that the Ebola virus is mutating rapidly, which could make it more transmissible or reduce the effectiveness of drugs and vaccines in the pipeline. ZMapp is the drug that’s gotten the most attention so far. It’s a combination of three antibodies, proteins that bind and neutralize the Ebola virus. ZMapp has been administered to seven Ebola patients, and the manufacturer says its supplies have been exhausted. It is too early...