Margaret Chan, WHO boss
By Mustapha Kamara
Spokesperson for the World Health Organisation, WHO, in Sierra Leone has disclosed that they will soon start to provide Serum treatments that will help cure Ebola victims in the country.
In an interview with Politico Margaret Harris said the Serum, which is a mixture that consists of blood samples from Ebola survivors, would be available for use in Sierra Leone by next month.
She said that they were already training a team of medical experts who would be in charge of transfusions.
She explained that the main theory behind the use of Serum was that people who had survived the disease might have strong immune systems and developed anti bodies that might develop the immune systems of victims in order to fight the Ebola virus out of their bodies.
She stated that the expert, who was being trained by WHO, would ensure that everything done was of high standards so as to prevent further risk of causing infection in persons they might be trying to cure.
The UN official added that several tests would be carried out before the blood transfusions were affected, “to make sure that other viruses like HIV are not transmitted to other people”.
Harris said theorganisation was optimistic that Serum would help cure Ebola victims “because we have got examples from the outbreak of another disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo back in 1996 when blood of survivors was used cure other victims”.
About the present Ebola situation in the country, Harris said the number of cases was gradually reducing countrywide, especially when the numbers from Kenema and Kailahun were closely considered.
“What Sierra Leone needs now are more people working everyday to cure people and stop the spread of the virus by reporting suspected cases to the appropriate authorities”, the WHO official urged.
Information officer at the National Emergency Response Center, Sidi Yayah Tunis, said that they were very much in support of the UN initiative. He said they had already identified and assigned persons who would be working with UN body to set up the systems that would administer the Serum to Ebola victims.
(C) Politico 23/10/14
