[Bloomberg] A black market for an Ebola treatment derived from the blood of survivors is emerging in the West African countries experiencing the worst outbreak of the virus on record, the World Health Organization said.
The United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
health agency will work with governments to stamp out the illicit trade in convalescent serum, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told news hounds today in Geneva, where the organization is based. There is a danger that such serums could contain other infections and wouldn't be administered properly, Chan said.
The WHO is encouraging the use of properly obtained serum to treat current patients and said last week it should be a priority.
More than 300 health-care workers have been infected with the Ebola virus, and almost half of them have died, the WHO said in a situation report today.
| The other half therefore survived, and could be serum donors... |
The WHO is helping establish a system that can be used to safely draw blood from those who have recovered from the disease, prepare it and re-inject it into patients. Doctors at Emory and Nebraska are also working on lists of survivors by blood type who could donate. |