The Ebola drug given to two Americans and a Spanish priest has been sent to treat infected doctors in two West African countries, and the supply of the medicine is now gone, its manufacturer said. 
 
 Countries including Nigeria and Liberia had requested the drug, called ZMapp. Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., based in San Diego, said it has complied with every request for the drug that was authorized by legal and regulatory authorities. The drug was provided at no cost, according to Mapp. 
 
 “It is our understanding that all patients offered treatment, treated, or expected to be treated were or are highly capable of providing informed consent for the use of an experimental drug not yet evaluated for safety in animals or people,” the company said yesterday in a statement. 
 
 Related: 
 
 Mapp and its partners, Defyrus Inc. and a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., are working with the U.S. government to quickly increase production, the company said. 
 
 “Additional resources are being brought to bear on scaling up,” the company said. “The emergency use of an experimental medicine is a highly unusual situation.” 
 
 The Deadliest Disease on Earth 
 
 Providing a small amount of an experimental drug to West Africa won’t help control the outbreak, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The focus needs to remain on basic public health and infection control measures, he said. 
 
 Too Little 
 
 “How can a couple of doses control an outbreak with hundreds and hundreds of people?” Fauci said by phone. “You don’t control the epidemic with two or three doses.” 
 
 Mapp, in its statement, didn’t identify which countries had received the remaining doses. The company said those who requested the drug can reveal their acquisition or use of the experimental drug. 
 
 The Ebola outbreak has killed 1,013 of the 1,848 people infected in West Africa as of Aug. 9, the World Health Organization said in a statement on its website. While other diseases are much more common and deadly, there is no cure for Ebola and it has moved quickly between countries, putting the global health community in high alert. Widespread malaria, which killed more than 600,000 people last year, is preventable and curable, according to the WHO. 
 
 ‘Long Overdue’ 
 
 A panel of ethicists convened by the WHO began meeting yesterday to weigh the use of experimental drugs that have shown early promise against Ebola. The panel is considering whether the drugs, which haven’t been widely tested for safety, should be used in an outbreak where 40 percent of infected people survive and, if so, who should get them from what may be a limited supply. 
 
 “This is the first effort to have a long-overdue, transparent, public discussion about how to distribute life-saving medicines in an emergency,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, in a telephone interview. “A ton of attention is going to follow this panel.” 
 
 The urgency to access the treatments has increased as health officials in the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong have isolated and tested travelers with Ebola-like symptoms, before ruling out the disease. Medical experts have said the deadly virus could travel outside of West Africa. 
 
 Spanish Priest 
 
 U.S. regulators last week said a treatment by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. could be tested in infected patients, while Mapp’s drug has already been used to treat two American aid workers Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who were infected in Liberia. The pair were flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where relatives and supporters have said they are improving, though it remains unclear if or how much the drug helped. 
 
 Spain requested the Mapp drug on Aug. 8, after the doctor treating priest Miguel Pajares, a 75-year-old missionary who worked with Ebola patients, asked authorities to help him get it, the health ministry said. The treatment arrived in Madrid the next day, the ministry said. Pajares died today at a hospital in the Spanish capital. 
 
 The medicine arrived from Geneva, where a dose existed under an agreement with the manufacturer, the WHO and Doctors Without Borders, the ministry said. Spokesmen for the WHO and Doctors Without Borders said their groups weren’t involved. 
 
 Awaiting Decision 
 
 Sierra Leone is awaiting the outcome of the WHO panel before pursuing ZMapp, and the country has approached Tekmira about getting access to its product, Sierra Leone Chief Medical Officer Brima Kargbo said in a telephone interview. 
 
 Other companies developing treatments or vaccines for the deadly disease include Fujifilm Holdings Corp., BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. 
 
 Ebola is normally treated by keeping patients hydrated, replacing lost blood and using antibiotics to fight off opportunistic infections. The hope is that a patient’s immune system will eventually fight off the virus’s aggressive attack. 
 
 Erica Ollmann Saphire, a molecular biologist who works on Ebola treatments with the Scripps Research Institute, said experimental drugs should go first to medical staff and aid workers. 
 
 “They are taking care of others at great risk to themselves,” Saphire said in an e-mail. “If the treatments help them survive, they could return to care for other patients, so the effect of the treatment would be compounded. Further, the health-care workers that survive may even become immune, and much better able to help in the future.” 
 
 Limited Supply 
 
 The limited supply of the drug could create problems, Caplan said, questioning whether a patient’s condition should matter in determining who gets treated. 
 
 “The more recently you’ve been infected, the more likely you’ll respond better than if you’re 20 days out,” he said. “How about young versus old? Do we care if you’re 10 or if you’re 80?” The WHO plans a news conference at 2 p.m. Geneva time today to discuss the meeting of the ethics panel. 
 
 Researchers say the outbreak probably began in December with a 2-year-old child in Guinea, and the disease has raced through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and recently entered Nigeria, which has recorded two Ebola-related deaths as of Aug. 9. 
 
 Equitable Care 
 
 G. Kevin Donovan, director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, said African doctors should be getting the same chance as Brantly and Writebol at potentially life-saving intervention. 
 
 “There is no reason why African doctors shouldn’t be considered as eligible” to be flown to Western countries for treatment, Donovan said in a telephone interview. “The sad truth is they are working in their own countries which are terribly under-funded and terribly under-staffed. The reason it worked for these two Americans is their organizations had the will and resources to pluck them out of danger.” 
 
 The inability of West African aid workers to get top-notch treatment is “a reflection of the inherent inequalities in the world and it doesn’t make it right. It makes it sadder and even more admirable for these local doctors and nurses to be placing themselves in such a position.” 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Caroline Chen in New York at cchen509@bloomberg.net; Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Kristen Hallam, Phil Serafino ||||| MADRID (AP) — The World Health Organization declared it's ethical to use untested drugs and vaccines in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, although the tiny supply of one experimental treatment has been depleted and it could be many months until more is available. 
 
 In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 11 2014, workers unload Ebola related aid goods from China at the airport in Conakry , Guinea. Over the decades, Ebola cases have been confirmed in 10 African countries,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 11 2014, workers unload Ebola related aid goods from China at the airport in Conakry, Guinea. Over the decades, Ebola cases have been confirmed in 10 African countries,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, a community volunteer uses a megaphone to speak to villagers to raise Ebola awareness on the outskirts of Kenema, situated in the Eastern Province around 300... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, a health worker prepares to examine patients for Ebola inside a screening tent, at the Kenema Government Hospital in the Eastern Province around 300 kilometers... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, a health worker cleans his hands with chlorinated water before entering a Ebola screening tent, at the Kenema Government Hospital situated in the Eastern Province... (Associated Press) 
 
 The body of a man found in the street, suspected of dying from the ebola virus is covered and removed by health workers, in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. The World Health... (Associated Press) 
 
 Health workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus and left in the street, in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. The World Health Organization... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, a health worker examines patients for Ebola inside a screening tent, at the Kenema Government Hospital situated in the Eastern Province around 300 km, (186... (Associated Press) 
 
 Health workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus and left in the street, as people watch in the background, in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014.... (Associated Press) 
 
 The body of a man found in the street, suspected of dying from the ebola virus is sprayed with disinfectant, in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. The World Health Organization... (Associated Press) 
 
 A health worker assists a colleague with his protective gear, as they collect the body of a man suspected to have died from the ebola virus, in Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. The World Health... (Associated Press) 
 
 Health workers carry the body of a man found in the street, suspected of dying from the ebola virus, in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. The World Health Organization declared... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014, an ambulance leaves the Ebola isolation unit carrying the bodies of Ebola victims that are highly contagious to a burial site, at the Kenema Government Hospital... (Associated Press) 
 
 The last of the drug is on its way to Liberia for two stricken doctors, according to a U.K.-based public relations firm representing Liberia. The U.S. company that makes it said the supply is now "exhausted." Later Tuesday, Canada said it would provide some of its experimental Ebola vaccine for use in West Africa. 
 
 A Spanish missionary priest who died Tuesday in Madrid was the third person to receive the experimental treatment called ZMapp. Two U.S. aid workers who received it in recent weeks are said to be improving. 
 
 The outbreak, the biggest in history, has killed more than 1,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. 
 
 There is no proven treatment or vaccine for Ebola; several are in early stages of development. ZMapp, made by Mapp Pharmaceuticals, is so new that it has never been tested in humans, although an early version worked in some monkeys infected with Ebola. It's aimed at boosting the immune system's efforts to fight off Ebola. 
 
 "If there are drugs that can save lives — as animal studies have suggested — shouldn't we use them to save lives?" Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director-general at WHO, told a Geneva press conference Tuesday. 
 
 But it is "very important to not give false hope to anybody that Ebola can be treated now. This is absolutely not the case," she added. 
 
 ZMapp is made in tobacco plants, and U.S. officials have estimated that only a modest amount could be produced in two or three months, unless some way to speed up production is found. 
 
 The U.N. health agency says 1,013 people have died so far in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa of the 1,848 suspected or confirmed cases recorded by authorities. The killer virus is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids like blood, diarrhea and vomit. 
 
 Canada announced it would donate 800 to 1,000 doses of its experimental Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada. A small supply will be kept in Canada in case any is needed there. The vaccine has not been tested in humans, but has shown promise in animals. 
 
 "The trouble is, of course, with this very, very limited number of vaccines, who would you give that to?" said Dr. Gregory Taylor, deputy head of the agency. 
 
 He said the agency has been advised that it makes the most sense to give the vaccine to health care workers in Africa. They are among the most vulnerable because of their close contact with Ebola patients. Several doctors and nurses have died in the outbreak. 
 
 The same vaccine was actually used once in 2009. It was rushed to a German lab worker who pricked her gloved finger with a needle that had contained Ebola. She survived, though it wasn't known if she was ever really infected with Ebola and if the vaccine worked. 
 
 Some experts aren't convinced, though, that any novel drugs or vaccines would make a difference in ending the current outbreak. 
 
 Once they're put to the test, most experimental drugs that seemed promising in animal studies "don't turn out to benefit people," said Dr. Jesse Goodman, former chief scientist for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, now at Georgetown University Medical Center. 
 
 He said some drugs prove harmful. "Unless we can ascertain that carefully, how do we really help people in the long run?" 
 
 After the two Americans received the experimental drug ZMapp, officials in Liberia requested it. Officials in Sierra Leone and Guinea have expressed interest in getting experimental treatments but haven't yet asked. 
 
 "The Liberians can count on their government, but Guineans can only count on God in the face of Ebola," said Assiatou Diallo, a nurse in Conakry, Guinea's capital. 
 
 The Spanish missionary, 75-year-old Miguel Pajares, died in Madrid's Carlos III Hospital, the hospital and his order said. A doctor who was part of the team treating the priest confirmed he had received the experimental drug. The doctor, an infectious diseases specialist, spoke on condition of anonymity, not being authorized to discuss the treatment. 
 
 Pajares' body will be cremated Wednesday to avoid any public health risks, the hospital said. He had worked for the San Juan de Dios hospital order, a Catholic group, helping to treat people with Ebola in Liberia when he became ill and was evacuated. 
 
 The son of the U.S. missionary aid worker being treated for Ebola at an Atlanta hospital said his mother is doing well. Jeremy Writebol told NBC's "Today" show in an interview broadcast Tuesday that Nancy Writebol's eyes are getting brighter and she's even joking a little. 
 
 Jeremy Writebol said he had been concerned his mother might not make it when she was taken out of an ambulance at Emory University's hospital last week after being flown from Liberia. A second American, Dr. Kent Brantly, had been able to walk from the ambulance into the hospital. 
 
 Writebol said doctors have said they expect her to recover, though they haven't elaborated. 
 
 WHO said the size of the outbreak — the first in West Africa — made the experimental use of drugs ethical even though there is no evidence they work and it is possible they could be dangerous. The agency convened an expert panel of ethicists, infectious disease experts and patient representatives to discuss the issue on Monday. 
 
 "We don't have enough people to rely on the traditional methods if we want to stop the outbreak as soon as possible," Kieny said. 
 
 WHO said it was OK to use unproven treatments or vaccines if patients give their informed consent and are guaranteed confidentiality and freedom of choice. 
 
 There was no specific advice on who should get them; the panel only said more analysis and discussion was needed. 
 
 "I don't think there could be any fair distribution of something available in such small quantities," Kieny noted. 
 
 She said some companies were speeding up trials of their new Ebola vaccines and there might be some preliminary safety data by the end of the year. 
 
 WHO also said the world had "a moral duty" to collect evidence about the safety and effectiveness of Ebola treatments in scientific trials. 
 
 Canada's Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. is developing a drug that targets Ebola's genetic material. The FDA had halted a small safety study with questions about a reaction in healthy volunteers. Last week, Tekmira announced that the FDA had modified its restriction, clearing a roadblock to possible experimental use in patients, and said it was "carefully evaluating options." 
 
 West African nations are struggling to control both the deadly outbreak and the fear it has created. Some airlines flying in and out of the region have suspended flights. 
 
 The Ivory Coast, which shares borders with Liberia and Guinea, banned direct flights from those countries and said it would increase health inspections at its borders. Guinea-Bissau also announced it was temporarily closing its border with Guinea because of the Ebola outbreak. 
 
 On Tuesday, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf suspended all travel by executive branch officials for one month. She also ordered those already abroad to return home within a week "or be considered as abandoning their jobs," according to a statement. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Cheng reported from London. Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia, Liberia; Clarence Roy-Macaulay in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Jorge Sainz in Madrid, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Lassana Cassama in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau and Boubacar Diallo in Conakry, Guinea, contributed to this report. ||||| The doctor who had been leading Sierra Leone’s battle against the Ebola outbreak was now fighting for his own life, and his international colleagues faced a fateful decision: whether to give him a drug that had never before been tested on people. 
 
 Would the drug, known as ZMapp, help the stricken doctor? Or would it perhaps harm or even kill one of the country’s most prominent physicians, a man considered a national hero, shattering the already fragile public trust in international efforts to contain the world’s worst Ebola outbreak? 
 
 The treatment team, from Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization, agonized through the night and ultimately decided not to try the drug. The doctor, Sheik Umar Khan, died a few days later, on July 29. 
 
 The doses of the drug that were not used were eventually sent to Liberia, where other doctors made the opposite decision — and two American aid workers became the first people in the world to receive ZMapp. Both of them survived and are now being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Healthcare workers need to put on protective equipment before caring for Ebola patients 
 
 Canada says it will donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help battle the disease's outbreak in West Africa. 
 
 It comes after the World Health Organization said it was ethical to use untested drugs on Ebola patients. 
 
 However, experts say supplies of both the vaccine and the experimental drug Zmapp are limited and it could take months to develop more supplies. 
 
 More than 1,000 people have been killed by the current outbreak. 
 
 Canada says between 800 and 1,000 doses of the vaccine, which has only been tested on animals, will be donated to the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in West Africa. 
 
 However, it will keep a small portion of the vaccine for research, and in case it is needed in Canada. 
 
 'Global resource' 
 
 The current outbreak has infected people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. 
 
 Dr Gregory Taylor, deputy head of Canada's Public Health Agency, said he saw the vaccines as a "global resource". 
 
 He said he had been advised that it would make sense for health care workers to be given the vaccine, given their increased risk of contracting the disease. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption The current outbreak kills about 55% of those infected 
 
 Even if Canada releases most of its existing doses, experts warn it could take four to six months to make a quantity large enough to have any real impact at preventing the illness, the BBC's Lee Carter reports from Toronto. 
 
 On Tuesday, the WHO said that in light of scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths, it was "ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention." 
 
 Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency. 
 
 'Drug supply exhausted' 
 
 Liberia says it is getting an experimental drug, Zmapp, after requests to the US government. 
 
 However, the WHO said there were only 12 doses. 
 
 Zmapp maker Mapp Biopharmaceutical said on Tuesday: "The available supply of ZMapp has been exhausted. We have complied with every request for ZMapp that had the necessary legal/regulatory authorisation. 
 
 "Drug has been provided at no cost in all cases." 
 
 Zmapp has been used on two US aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, although it is not certain what role the medication played in this. 
 
 A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug. 
 
 Ebola's initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment. 
 
 What drugs exist currently ? 
 
 There are a handful of drugs that have been shown to work well in animals. 
 
 One is Zmapp - the drug requested by the Liberian government. This contains a cocktail of antibodies that attack proteins on the surface of the virus. 
 
 Only one drug has moved on to early safety testing in humans. Known as TKM-Ebola, this interrupts the genetic code of the virus and prevents it from making disease-causing proteins. 
 
 The drug was trialled in healthy volunteers at the beginning of 2014 but the American medicines regulator asked for further safety information. The manufacturer says human studies may soon resume. 
 
 Another option would be to use serum from individuals who have survived the virus - this is a part of the blood that may contain particles able to neutralise the virus. 
 
 Vaccines to protect against acquiring the disease have also been shown to work in primates. American authorities are considering fast-tracking their development and say they could be in use in 2016. Trials are likely to start soon, according to the WHO. 
 
 But experts warn that ultimately the only way to be sure a drug or vaccine is effective is to see if it works in countries affected by Ebola. 
 
 Ebola virus disease (EVD) 
 
 Image copyright Science Photo Library
– The United Nations has greenlighted the use of untested drugs to combat Ebola—but there aren't any doses of the Ebola drug ZMapp left. The drug's maker says it has exhausted its supply and it could be months before it can produce more, Bloomberg reports. California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. says it has complied with every request for the drug, which is made in tobacco plants. "Additional resources are being brought to bear on scaling up," the company says. "The emergency use of an experimental medicine is a highly unusual situation." The final doses will be used to treat two doctors in Liberia, the country's president says. Canada, meanwhile, says it will send West Africa up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine it has developed, keeping a small amount in Canada for research and in case it is needed for Canadian patients, the BBC reports. Two Americans who received ZMapp are being treated in Atlanta and doctors expect them to recover, reports the AP, but an elderly Spanish priest who also received the drug after becoming infected in Liberia died in a Madrid hospital yesterday. The Americans were the first people ever to be treated with the drug, and the decision to give it to them instead of African health workers and patients has raised ethical questions, the New York Times notes in a look at the decision not to give ZMapp to a leading doctor in Sierra Leone who died from the disease.