IS it any wonder that we question our safety in the light of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa ("Study reveals importance of Ebola screening at international airports", The Herald, October 21)?

We are told that Ebola is incurable and that 90 per cent of people who catch it will probably die. In these circumstances one would hope and believe that governments and their agencies would try every possible cure to assess its effectiveness against the virus. Yet when a hospital in Sierra Leone intended to utilise an isolation ward to test the effectiveness of a traditional antiviral treatment the World Health Organisation blocked the trial. The antiviral treatment was colloidal silver, which has been used successfully for centuries against a range of viruses. It appears that just to ensure the trial did not go ahead a shipment of nanosilver and nanosilver gel destined for Sierra Leone was blocked and sent back to the United States not once but three times.

It is hard to understand this action until one realises that colloidal silver is a natural remedy which cannot be patented. If the test had proved successful it is relevant to ask how much profit this would cost the drug companies. Might the interests of the drug companies be taking precedence?

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent,

Prestwick.