Blood of survivors of Ebola now black market hotcake

Ebola outbreak: Black market for blood of
survivors emerging as virus spreads
World Health Organisation says
demand for experimental serum is
growing
By LINDSEY BEVER
Ebola has infected nearly 4,800 people. It
has killed more than 2,400. And a black
market for the blood of its survivors is
emerging in the epicenter of the outbreak
in West Africa, according to the World
Health Organisation (WHO).
Convalescent serum — serum collected
from someone who has survived an
infectious disease — has been used to
treat Ebola victims. Most recently, it was
given to 51-year-old American aid worker
Rick Sacra from survivor Kent Brantly.
Blood from Ebola survivors is rich with
antibodies against the deadly virus, and
since there is currently no approved drug
to fight it, some have become desperate
enough to take fate into their own hands
and turn to the black market for the
experimental serum.
But WHO is concerned about the illicit
trade, since giving a patient someone
else’s blood can cause anaphylactic shock
and death or infect with other diseases
such as HIV if the blood is tainted. For
that reason, the United Nations health
agency said it will work with governments
to stamp out the black market, WHO
Director-General Margaret Chan said, and
establish a safe system for collecting,
storing and re-injecting blood.
Read more: Survivor's blood may be
used in new treatments
The black market also has some worried
about the fate of supplies shipped in from
the outside. On Tuesday, as President
Obama was set to announce a 3,000-troop
commitment to Africa, Laurie Garrett,
senior fellow for global health at the
Council for Foreign Relations, told the Hill
she was concerned the airdropped
supplies might turn up on the black
market. Officials did not say in which
country the black market was found.
No medication has been approved or is
readily available to treat Ebola, though an
experimental treatment called ZMapp was
used on Brantly and Nancy Writebol. For
now, patients are given intravenous
fluids, antibiotics and blood transfusions
to help their immune systems fight back.
“We are supporting use of whole blood
and convalescent serum to manage Ebola
virus disease in the West African Ebola
outbreak,” WHO spokesman Margaret
Harris said. “Whole blood has already
been used in a number of centers.”
It’s unclear how successful convalescent
serum has been in treating Ebola, but
with close to half of its victims still alive,
the potential pool of donors is substantial.
In addition to WHO’s work, doctors at
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and
Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha are
building a registry of survivors by blood
type to help future victims, Bloomberg
said. And the U.S. National Institute of
Health is working on a vaccine.
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