The scary part of the disease has
subsided but we are not safe. What are we doing to stop Ebola and who is our
hero? You don’t hear much from the pharmaceutical companies. Why? There is one
man who has invented the cure for Ebola and we should all know him and he
should be honored by the world. It is believed that his drug helped to cure Dr.
Kent Brantly, the first American to get Ebola. At the time
there was only enough of the drug to treat 9 people. Why? Why wasn’t our
billion dollar pharmaceutical business on top of this disease?
Inside are some of the most
dangerous viruses in the world. We need to thank Dr. Gary Kobinger who has
quietly spent a decade trying to find a cure for Ebola and who daily sealed
himself behind layer upon layer of protection before getting to work. Who is
brave enough to willingly expose themselves to the most dangerous diseases in the
world with no cure day after day dressed like a mummy breathing through a tube
like an astronaut? No one knows this guy and google doesn’t even post a picture
of him. Dr. Gary Kobinger is one of the
world’s silent heroes that proceeds with his work without fanfare or the need
for much acknowledgement. He is too busy doing something good to be consumed
with fame or fortune.
The door to his laboratory is
sealed as if in a submarine. The air is changed 15 times per hour. It takes up to a year of training before
anyone is allowed inside. Interviews are conducted behind bullet proof glass.
He is working on ZMAPP which is the most promising way to combat the disease.
He stores the virus in a tank that is minus 320 degrees. In a small vile he
holds the virus that could kill thousands because of how quickly it can take
over the body. Before using ZMAPP that cured the missionary doctor Kent Brantly,
the drug had only been tested on lab rats and monkeys. Kent was actively dying
so he took the drug anyway. Within 2 or 3 hours of taking the drug, he felt
much better.
After his story got out there was
a mad scramble for the 8 other doses of the miracle drug. Dr. Gary knows to
make his invention be standardized it needs a Randomized Trial. A small
clinical trial is being done now with great results. Success is now being done
in West Africa but salvation is being done in Kentucky where more supplies are
being produced. The product is from tobacco. Kentucky Bio-Processing is growing
a type of tobacco not used for smoking or chewing. It is ironic that we associate
tobacco with causing death but this strain is giving life. It takes six weeks
to produce a supply of ZMAPP from the tobacco. They must wait for the plant to
grow, then immerse the plant in a liquid containing a gene that makes special
antibodies that tells the immune system to fight the virus.
The leaves are reduced to a
liquid and the process is done 3 more times. In about a football field of
plants, only about a dozen people can be treated from the amount of ZMAPP in
the yield. So it is a long process involving a lot of plants but it has cured
every single person given the product. 12 years ago at a small pharmaceutical
company called Mapp Biopharmaceutical, they knew of this treatment for EBOLA .
They had a staff of only 9 scientists and no funding. Since Dr. Gary is working
with them now, our government is funding the production of the drug through a
small agency called BARTA, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development
Authority.
Now the United States has vaccines
for Small Pox, and Anthrax, drugs for Botulism and Radiation. Again, God
Bless America.
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