Liberia to get experimental Ebola drug to treat two doctors – minister

Doctor for tropical medicine Florian Steiner (R) and ward physician Thomas Klotzkowski step out of a disinfection chamber after cleaning their protective suits, at the quarantine station for patients with infectious diseases at the Charite hospital in Berlin August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter reuters_tickers

DAKAR (Reuters) – Liberia will receive enough of an experimental Ebola drug to treat just two infected Liberian doctors, Information Minister Lewis Brown said, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its export.

Brown said Liberia’s Health Ministry had contacted the U.S. manufacturer of ZMapp, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and asked the FDA to quickly approve its export.

The doctors had consented in writing to the treatment, the minister said.

(Reporting by Daniel Flynn, editing by John Stonestreet)