Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns - Serum from Ebola survivors unlikely to help treat patients

[MHSC]

(CNN) -- As hospitals in nations hardest hit by Ebola struggle to keep up, desperate patients are turning to the black market to buy blood from survivors of the virus, the World Health Organization warned.

...

But unlike their situation, patients in affected nations are getting blood through improper channels. 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," Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general, said 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."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/18/health/ebola-blood-black-market/

 

[Gemineye]

Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

By Faith Karimi, CNN
updated 7:46 AM EDT, Thu September 18, 2014

(CNN) -- As hospitals in nations hardest hit by Ebola struggle to keep up, desperate patients are turning to the black market to buy blood from survivors of the virus, the World Health Organization warned.

snip

"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," the WHO said.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/18/health/ebola-blood-black-market/

 

[AnnaLisa]

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

I can't imagine how they are buying this blood. I don't even want to think about it. I can't believe what some people will do to make a buck. Awful for the victims of this scam.

 

[GardenSpider]

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

I can't imagine how they are buying this blood. I don't even want to think about it. I can't believe what some people will do to make a buck. Awful for the victims of this scam.

It's difficult for us to wrap our minds around this trend which falls so easily into the category of traditional African medicine. Many people of West Africa use a variety of strange "medicines," some of which use specific body parts of animals and yes, even humans as cures for all sorts of things. Sadly, news of "survivor blood" being even remotely helpful falls right into their existing beliefs and practices. It will be difficult for them to heed the warning from WHO.

It is not at all surprising that "survivor blood" should find its way to the black market. Just about everything else you can think of is already there. Given what I have witnessed in West Africa first hand, I would not be surprised if there are cases where people are also using "survivor blood" as a magical prophylaxis.

 

[JJackson]

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns

Prevalence of HIV by country (15 to 49 age group) Sierra Leone 1.6%, Guinea 1.4%, Liberia 1%, DRC 2.4%. Wikipedia

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns - Serum from Ebola survivors unlikely to help treat patients

Re: Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns - Serum from Ebola survivors unlikely to help treat patients

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Ebola Convalescent Serum: It's No Magic Bullet

There have been many questions since Dr. C.J. Peters was quoted here (9/8/14) saying that convalescent serum from Ebola survivors was unlikely to help treat patients. In this post I go into detail about the data we have that supports this statement. In a future post I will discuss the why of it.

Read more of this great explanation by Heather Lander in her blog Pathogen Perspectives