Ebola serum for Africa patients within weeks, says WHO

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Ebola serum for Africa patients within weeks, says WHO
By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News Online

(BBC) Serum made from the blood of recovered Ebola patients could be available within weeks in Liberia, one of the countries worst hit by the virus, says the World Health Organization.

Speaking in Geneva, Dr Marie Paule Kieny said work was also advancing quickly to get drugs and a vaccine ready for January 2015.

The Ebola outbreak has already killed more than 4,500 people.

Most of the deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Dr Kieny, WHO assistant director general for health system and innovation, said: "There are partnerships which are starting to be put in place to have capacity in the three countries to safely extract plasma and make preparation that can be used for the treatment of infective patients.

"The partnership which is moving the quickest will be in Liberia where we hope that in the coming weeks there will be facilities set up to collect the blood, treat the blood and be able to process it for use."

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29707393


-- BBC 2014-10-22

[Scott]

How safe is blood serum. Can it contain other viruses, such as flu or HIV?

[NeverSure]

I think they can test for that. Don't they test for HIV before they use donor blood?

[Scott]

Usually the test is for the antibodies, but the antibodies do not develop until the virus is reasonably well established.

[xygote]

What happened to the Thai miracle cure for Ebola?

[HUAHIN62]

The problem they are facing is that the virus is now mutating at the same pace as flu, which will make it more difficult to combat with serums. Ref: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-21/ebola-2014-mutating-fast-seasonal-flu

[rickirs]

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The problem they are facing is that the virus is now mutating at the same pace as flu, which will make it more difficult to combat with serums. Ref: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-21/ebola-2014-mutating-fast-seasonal-flu

The problem is that the ebola genome has not yet been entirely mapped for each of the five types; thus, without a complete baseline the extent of their mutation and associated contagion is difficult to track. Some mutations so far have not resulted in a more dangerous disease, albeit the disease is still very dangerous already. On the plus side as the number of infections increase, the number of survivors increase, and the amount of vaccine that can be developed is increased with availability of more plasma from survivors.

[MJP]

Ebola crisis: Mali confirms first infection case

The Malian government has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29750723

[MJP]

Possible Ebola Carrier Placed in Isolation at Bellevue Hospital in New York City

A doctor in New York City who recently returned from West Africa was rushed to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday and placed in isolation while doctors await the return of tests to determine whether he has the Ebola virus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/nyregion/craig-spencer-is-tested-for-ebola-virus-at-bellevue-hospital-in-new-york-city.html

[MJP]

Ebola outbreak: Virus to kill 67,000 in Monrovia by December, claims academic study

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/ebola-outbreak-virus-to-kill-67000-in-monrovia-by-december-claims-academic-study-9814804.html

One of the comments at the end of the article . . .

Hmm, so how's its going with last month's forecasts "Ebola to reach UK and France by October". 7 days to go I guess.

How about the "Ebola to infect 1.5 million by January" forecast? That was is surely looking even more suspect. Ebola continues to flat line as indeed it has all summer, and has zero chance of infecting even a fraction of that number by January.

Indeed the media and aid agencies are so frustrated at Ebola's stubborn refusal to kill more people more quickly, that not only do they keep coming up with hysterical forecasts completely detached from reality, but moreover they only ever quote cumulative data for the disease - which can of course only ever go up - rather than new cases per week, and deaths per week which have been falling since mid September.

All in all this latest 'forecast' needs to be treated with the same pinch of salt as the previous hysterical ones. It's a shame that some people think the only way they can get the attention of the media by being absurd, and its an even bigger shame that the media only report people when they are.