(CNN) -- One of the many questions surrounding the revelation that Americans Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol received a little-known, experimental serum for their Ebola infection is: "Why did we hear nothing about it earlier, and how did they gain access to it?" Ebola has no cure, although potential medications and vaccines are in various states of development. The serum ZMapp, an experimental product of Mapp Biopharmaceutical, hasn't been tested in humans, which means it doesn't meet a primary requirement for FDA approval -- so its obscurity is no surprise. The Americans managed to gain access to what more than 1,660 infected people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and now Nigeria did not: medicine that seems to work -- although, of course, we don't know for sure yet. Some reports indicate they received ZMapp under the FDA's "compassionate use" rule, which permits untested drugs to be given to consenting patients who might otherwise die. This is a triumph of common sense and compassion over bureaucratic red tape.
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Americans with Ebola received an experimental medicine that seemed to help
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Harriet Washington: Poor Africans don't have access to lifesaving medicines
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She says access to drugs often based on how much money you have and if you're a Westerner
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She urges this drug be made in quantity and given to infected West Africans in a trial
This simply highlights another reason why we should so our utmost to protect people from @placeholder: our medical interdependence.