ZMapp, the experimental drug given to two American aid workers who contracted Ebola while serving in West Africa, is being manufactured as quickly as possible, but none will be available for six to eight weeks, says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
All supplies of ZMapp are currently depleted, leaving none to treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with the deadly virus inside the United States.
ZMapp is difficult to make, but with the virus now in America, public fears have increased despite officials' assurances that it can be transmitted only by close contact with bodily fluids of a person who is displaying symptoms.
Fauci also said that a vaccine to prevent Ebola is in early testing and data on whether it is safe should be available by year's end.
Appearing Sunday on
"Face the Nation," Fauci said it is possible that at least one of the people who came into close contact with Duncan, who recently entered the United States from Liberia, could also come down with the virus.
"There certainly is a risk," he said.
But Fauci said that the human error at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which initially sent Duncan home even after he told them he was from Liberia, has been corrected.
"Hopefully, this will be lesson learned so that emergency room and clinic docs throughout the country, when they have someone come in and say they have symptoms compatible with Ebola, you ask them 'Have you been to West Africa?'" Fauci said.
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