• Question: will there ever be a cure for ebola or cancer?

    Asked by bemily to Lea, Emma, Christopher, Ananthi, Aaron on 7 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Emma Stevenson

      Emma Stevenson answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      There is definitely something in the pipeline for Ebola as i am pretty sure it has been used in the recent outbreak. As for cancer this is more complicated as there are so many cancer variations. So, it is going to be impossible to find one cure. But for some cancers researchers may be closer to a cure than for others.

    • Photo: Aaron Brown

      Aaron Brown answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      Yes, Ebola is a virus, so hopefully vaccines can be created, like for flu. Cancer is a little more difficult, but I believe in the next few years we see cures for indivisible cancers, such a liver or skin.

    • Photo: Ananthi Ramachandran

      Ananthi Ramachandran answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      Ebola virus is something that is being researched at the moment 🙂 So yes as Aaron mentioned it’s a virus so like a flu vaccine, a vaccine can be developed for this which is great. As for cancer, unfortunately there are so many types so it’s a big job! People are working on finding a cure, and earlier detection methods. Maybe if you go into science you can play a big part in finding a cure?

    • Photo: Christopher Richardson

      Christopher Richardson answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      There are already several cures and treatments for Ebola many of them have been stuck in clinical trials at the moment (which typically last for 7 YEARS!!) so they haven’t been approved as fully safe yet, one was rushed through recently to help combat the outbreak in Nigeria and central Africa over the last three years but again it will be a very long time before a full cure such as a vaccine is ready as the virus is so dangerous that not many people are allowed to work on it.
      Cancer is slightly different, it is not like Ebola in the way that you “catch” Ebola from someone or something else and it infects you so we can make drugs that specifically kill it….cancer are your own cells in your body that mutate and start to grow out of control in your body, because they are your own cells and your own body we cant just make a drug that kills your cells because it would start to kill all your normal healthy cells! You can see the problem! That’s why when cancer patients get treatment today they often feel much worse before they are better because the doctors are trying to get rid of your cells!
      With all o the money going into research however I believe and some friends have told me that the cure will be found in less that 50 years and its likely to come from the screening of your DNA at birth to detect where and when you’ll get cancer and then stopping you from even getting it which I think is very cool!

Comments