Author Topic: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood  (Read 603 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline EC

  • Shanghaied Editor
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23,804
  • Gender: Male
  • Cats rule. Dogs drool.
The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« on: September 17, 2014, 02:36:27 pm »
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 Organization (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.

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.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/17/the-black-market-for-ebola-survivors-blood/

Said that would happen.
The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Avatar courtesy of Oceander

I've got a website now: Smoke and Ink

Offline alicewonders

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13,021
  • Gender: Female
  • Live life-it's too short to butt heads w buttheads
Re: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2014, 03:27:43 pm »
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 Organization (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.

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.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/17/the-black-market-for-ebola-survivors-blood/

Said that would happen.

Does anyone else see a Zombie Apocolypse on the horizon with this ebola thing?

Don't tread on me.   8888madkitty

We told you Trump would win - bigly!

Offline EC

  • Shanghaied Editor
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23,804
  • Gender: Male
  • Cats rule. Dogs drool.
Re: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2014, 03:40:08 pm »
Does anyone else see a Zombie Apocolypse on the horizon with this ebola thing?

More The Stand, the way I'm looking at it. Or the Andromeda Strain.
The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Avatar courtesy of Oceander

I've got a website now: Smoke and Ink

Offline alicewonders

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13,021
  • Gender: Female
  • Live life-it's too short to butt heads w buttheads
Re: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2014, 03:43:19 pm »
More The Stand, the way I'm looking at it. Or the Andromeda Strain.

I can't help but feel that the timing of this ebola breakout is suspect.  But that's my guts speaking. 

Don't tread on me.   8888madkitty

We told you Trump would win - bigly!

Offline olde north church

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,117
Re: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2014, 03:51:39 pm »
I can't help but feel that the timing of this ebola breakout is suspect.  But that's my guts speaking.

Just remember the most beautiful thing about disease and pestilence, it is an equal opportunity predator.  The Plague did more for the rights of man than the Magna Carta.
Why?  Well, because I'm a bastard, that's why.

Offline alicewonders

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13,021
  • Gender: Female
  • Live life-it's too short to butt heads w buttheads
Re: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2014, 03:54:09 pm »
Just remember the most beautiful thing about disease and pestilence, it is an equal opportunity predator.  The Plague did more for the rights of man than the Magna Carta.

True that ONC, if you can make it out alive. 

Don't tread on me.   8888madkitty

We told you Trump would win - bigly!

Offline musiclady

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,682
Re: The black market for Ebola survivors’ blood
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2014, 09:00:46 pm »
True that ONC, if you can make it out alive.

Bring out your dead!



Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.