--- title: Ebola: WHO Says Stop The Ebola-Drug Sensationalism and Fake Cures description: WHO says there's too much hype for unproven treatments, and too many people claiming to have cures on social media canonical: https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-15T15:50:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:53.166Z article:section: Health og:title: Stop the Ebola-Drug Sensationalism and Fake Cures, WHO Says og:description: WHO says there's too much hype for unproven treatments, and too many people claiming to have cures on social media og:url: https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stop the Ebola-Drug Sensationalism and Fake Cures, WHO Says twitter:description: WHO says there's too much hype for unproven treatments, and too many people claiming to have cures on social media twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Fake Cures and Ebola-Drug Sensationalism Need to Stop, WHO Says > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/G194AmTC.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2014-08-13. Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 15, 2014 3:50 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 15, 2014 3:50 PM UTC “Recent intense media coverage of experimental medicines and vaccines is creating some unrealistic expectations, especially in an emotional climate of intense fear,” the World Health Organization (WHO) wrote in a statement sent to the media on Friday. Public fear and anxiety of Ebola is understandable, the WHO says, since the disease has no known cure or vaccine. But the organization warns that there needs to be more reason when it comes to fervor over experimental drugs that are in very limited supply. The WHO says that the public needs to understand that the majority of treatments available are not approved, and have not been tested in humans. One of the more disturbing outcomes to come out of the Ebola treatment fervor are fraudulent cure claims on social media. “All rumors of any other effective products or practices are false. Their use can be dangerous. In Nigeria, for example, at least two people have died after drinking salt water, \[which was\] rumored to be protective,” the WHO writes. Twitter is full of individuals claiming to know of Ebola “cures,” which the WHO is trying to combat, like the one below: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [put out a warning letter to consumers on ](http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm410086.htm?source=govdelivery&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fsource=govdelivery)Thursday about products claiming to treat Ebola. “Since the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, the FDA has seen and received consumer complaints about a variety of products claiming to either prevent the Ebola virus or treat the infection,” the letter says. “There are currently no FDA-approved vaccines or drugs to prevent or treat Ebola.” Earlier this week, a WHO panel deemed it ethical to use experimental drugs and vaccines during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but it is still developing use guidelines from a panel of experts. The WHO says the Canadian government is donating doses of an experimental vaccine, adding that “a fully tested and licensed vaccine is not expected before 2015,” WHO says. Recent numbers for Ebola continue to rise. The latest case numbers from WHO put the number of cases at 1,975 and deaths at 1,069\. The WHO reports that there have been no new cases of Ebola detected so far in Nigeria, which is the most recent country to have a small cluster of the disease. The WHO says it is in the process of scaling up a massive international response. The CDC is currently tracking cases to prevent further infections, and the World Food Programme is delivering food to over one million people currently quarantined in zones where the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone meet. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/"},"headline":"Fake Cures and Ebola-Drug Sensationalism Need to Stop, WHO Says","datePublished":"2014-08-15T15:50:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:53.166Z","description":"WHO says there's too much hype for unproven treatments, and too many people claiming to have cures on social media","url":"https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","CDC","Sierra Leone","WHO","Vaccines","Nigeria","ebola","Guinea","Liberia","Ebola outbreak"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/","name":"Fake Cures and Ebola-Drug Sensationalism Need to Stop, WHO Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola","description":"Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/G194AmTC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-13T23:41:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/G194AmTC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/","duration":"PT2M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3117313/fake-cures-and-ebola-drug-sensationalism-need-to-stop-who-says/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```