The blood of patients who recover from Ebola
should be used to treat others, the World Health Organization has announced. West Africa is facing the largest Ebola outbreak in
history and more than 2,000 people have died. A global group of experts have been meeting to assess the experimental therapies that could contain Ebola. The WHO also announced that Ebola vaccines could be used on the frontline by November. Blood medicine People produce antibodies in the blood in an
attempt to fight off an Ebola infection. In theory, those antibodies can be transferred from a survivor into a sick patient to give their immune system a boost. However, large scale data on the effectiveness of the therapy is lacking. Studies on the 1995 outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo showed seven out of eight people survived after being given the therapy.
Dr Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general at WHO said: "We agreed that whole blood therapies may be used to treat Ebola virus and all efforts must be invested to help infected countries to use them. "There is a real opportunity that a blood-derived product can be used now and this can be very effective in terms of treating patients." She said that it was the one positive aspect of so many people being infected. "There are also many people now who have survived and are doing well. They can provide blood to treat the other people who are sick." Vaccines There is no clinically proven drug or vaccine to treat
Ebola, but many are in the experimental stage. Around 150 experts have spent the last two days investigating how to fast-track promising
experimental drugs to make them available in West Africa as soon as possible. Ebola vaccine trials started in the US this week and
will be extended to centres in the UK, Mali and
Gambia in the coming weeks.
The WHO said safety data would be ready by
November 2014 and, if it proved safe, would be used in West Africa immediately. Healthcare workers and other frontline staff would
be prioritised for vaccination, the WHO said. Experimental drugs - such as ZMapp, which has
been used in seven patients including a British
volunteer nurse - were also assessed. However, the supplies of all the experimental drugs are very limited, if not exhausted. The WHO said efforts were underway to increase
production, but it would take several months. Dr Jesse Goodman, from Georgetown University Medical Center in the US, took part in the meeting. He said: "This is a unique opportunity to identify what new treatments and vaccines can really help people and then potentially accelerate their use. "We don't want to end up after this outbreak not knowing how best to prevent or treat the next one." Yet the WHO warned that all the talk of experimental therapies must not detract from the proven methods of infection control which have defeated all previous outbreaks. Meanwhile, officials in Nigeria have decided to
reopen schools in the country from 22 September. They were closed as a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus.
www.bbc.com/news/health-29084254?ocid=socialflow_facebook

The American Doctor who was cured of ebola was given blood of a Liberian boy who survived Ebola along with the Zmapp drug.
It is not clear which of them cured him.

I knew it will come to this

Weh! I pray it work sha

Operation fire for fire! Or, can i say iron shapeneth iron?

APC....

Collynzo16: The American Doctor who was cured of ebola was given blood of a Liberian boy who survived Ebola along with the Zmapp drug.
It is not clear which of them cured him.

this goes to tell u that we're so backward in this continent. Should we wait for WHO to tel us that anybody that survived ebola is forever immuned to d disease and his blood can be used to cure ebola?
We're indeed in a black continent.

Freest: APC....

. What has APC got to do with this.why the call?

Caseless2: this goes to tell u that we're so backward in this continent. Should we wait for WHO to tel us that anybody that survived ebola is forever immuned to d disease and his blood can be used to cure ebola?
We're indeed in a black continent.

the immunity does not last forever.
N also the previous infected person is susceptible to another strain of the virus