Liberia has said it will receive doses of an experimental Ebola drug to treat infected doctors in the West African country.
A statement, published on the Liberian presidency’s website on Monday, said the United States had approved a request from Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to ship the medicine, ZMapp, after a direct appeal to US President Barack Obama on Friday.
However, a spokesperson for the US Health and Human Services (HHS) Department said US authorities had simply assisted in connecting the Liberian government with the drug’s manufacturer.
“Since the drug was shipped for use outside the US, appropriate export procedures had to be followed,” the HHS spokesperson said, adding the drug company had worked directly with the Liberian government.