Ebola virus:MSF to start West Africa clinical trials.

French medical charity,Medicins Sans Frontieres says clinical trials to try to find an effective treatment for Ebola patients are to start in West Africa next week.

The medical charity,which has been helping lead the fight against the virus,says three of its treatment centres will host three separate research projects.

The first trial involves using the blood of recovered Ebola patients to treat sick people in the Guinean capital Conakry.
Two antiviral drugs will be trialled in Guinea and an unconfirmed location.

MSF spokeswoman Dr Annick Antierens,says the trials are a sign of hope toward the fighting of the deadly virus.
"This is an unprecedented international partnership which represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment," Dr Antierens told AFP.

The Ebola virus is thought to have infected more than 14,000 people, almost all of them in West Africa. The death toll has risen to 5,160.

The first trials are due to start next week and initial results are expected by February 2015.


Meanwhile, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lifted the state of emergency imposed in the country.

It marks the progress being made in the country, where the weekly number of new infections is falling.