TORONTO - The Public Health Agency of Canada has confirmed that Canada gave health officials in Spain and Norway treatment courses of a ZMapp-like drug to treat two health-care workers infected with Ebola.
The agency says the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg sent Spain and Norway one treatment course each of ZMab, a monoclonal antibody developed at the lab.
ZMab was a precursor to ZMapp; two of the three monoclonal antibodies in ZMapp were made by the Winnipeg lab and are contained in the ZMab cocktail.
The agency says the treatment course was sent to Spain in September and Norway this month.
The treatments were what is called laboratory grade; they were made for testing in animals.
A Spanish newspaper, quoting the head of that country's Centre for Health and Emergency Alerts, said an infected nursing assistant in that country has not been given the drug, over concerns about possible side-effects.
It is not clear if the drug was used to treat the case in Norway, a nurse who works for Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders.
"The experimental treatment was donated on compassionate grounds to help treat health-care workers infected with Ebola," the Public Health Agency said in an emailed response to questions.
"Canada has a limited amount of experimental treatment remaining available at this time. All remaining inventory will be kept in Canada for research purposes or for compassionate use by Canadians as needed."
The agency did not answer questions regarding how the treatment came to be made available to Spain and Norway.
