EBOLA: Patients buying survivors’ blood from black market –WHO

THE World Health Organisation has raised the alarm that desperate patients of the Ebola Virus Disease are buying the blood of survivors of the virus from the black market.

Blood from survivors, referred to as convalescent serum, is said to have antibodies that can fight the deadly virus, hence the rush for the blood of survivor in the worst hit countries. Though unproven, it has provided some promise in fighting a disease with no approved drug to treat the dreaded disease.

The current Ebola outbreak, said to be the deadliest in history, has killed at least 2,400 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The three West African countries have been the most affected by the virus.

New cases have also emerged in Nigeria and Senegal, though authorities in Nigeria said the country had successfully battled the scourge.

The WHO on Thursday said, “Studies suggest blood transfusions from survivors might prevent or treat Ebola virus infection in others, but the results of the studies are still difficult to interpret.

“It is not known whether antibodies in the plasma of survivors are sufficient to treat or prevent the disease. More research is needed.”

Convalescent serum has been used to treat patients, including American aid worker Rick Sacra, who is hospitalised in Omaha, Nebraska. He got blood from Kent Brantly, a fellow American who survived Ebola. Both got infected when they were helping patients in Liberia.

But unlike the situation of the Americans, patients in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are said to be procuring blood through improper channels thus raising fears that the illicit trade can lead to the spread of other infections, including HIV and other blood-related ailments.

“We need to work very closely with the affected countries to stem out black market trading of convalescent serum for two reasons,” the CNN quoted the WHO’s Director-General, Margaret Chan, as saying this week.

“Because it is in the interest of individuals not to just get convalescent serum without going through the proper standard and the proper testing because it is important that there may be other infectious vectors that we need to look at,” Chan added.

Heath experts have declared the EVD a global emergency and criticised the international community for a lax response.

United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced that the US would send troops, material to build field hospitals, additional health care workers and community care kits to affected nations.

The US will also create a facility to help train thousands of health care workers to identify and care for Ebola patients, Obama said, stressing, “Men and women and children are just sitting, waiting to die right now.”

Hospitals in affected nations are overwhelmed, and the WHO has described the outbreak as a “dire emergency with unprecedented dimensions” of human suffering.

“If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people infected with profound political and economic and security implications for all of us,” Obama said.

There is also a concern that the virus could mutate into an even more dangerous form.

Ebola currently transmits only through contact with bodily fluids; a mutation that allows the virus to spread through the air would pose a catastrophic threat to people worldwide, experts have said.