Survivor’s blood is selling like hotcakes on the black market in West Africa.
Ebola patients believe it will help them beat the disease.
The World Health Organization announced earlier this month that survivor’s blood could be used to treat patients infected by Ebola.
Russia Today reported:
As the deadly Ebola virus continues to ravage a wide swath of Western Africa, some of the infected are turning to an illicit trade in survivors’ blood, despite warnings from the World Health Organization.
Having already killed 2,400 people and infected nearly 5,000 others, and with no cure in sight, the Ebola virus has triggered the growth of a black market in what is known as convalescent serum, the protein base of blood that has been collected from survivors of the epidemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
The serum is considered to be especially rich in antibodies that fight against the disease, and has already been administered to some patients, including Rick Sacra, an American health worker who has received transfusions from a survivor of the deadly virus.
“We are supporting use of whole blood and convalescent serum to manage Ebola virus disease in the West African Ebola outbreak,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told Politico. “Whole blood has already been used in a number of centers.”
A health worker, right, sprays a man with disinfectant chemicals as he is suspected of dying due to the Ebola virus as people, rear, look on in Monrovia, Liberia, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. (Santa Fe News)
