My good friend, Chris Landau, posted:
Promote Dr. Kent Brantly to head the CDC, to transfuse new blood into the nation
OpEdNews, 10/15/2014 at 16:26:20
Chris, is a published geologist. Landau's wife, Susan, in addition to being a special ed teacher, is degreed in micro-biology. Landau was born in South Africa in 1958, making him my junior, okay, making me, well, older.
Chris is a very passionate person who believes in what he says, and says what he believes, which puts him a notch above the crowd in my book. He says he's tired of the blame game and he warns of an impending consequence the deadly plague on the loose. Chris tells us the media is diverting our attention away from the 'cure'. And in my humble opinion, he's dead right.
Dr. Kent Brantly demonstrated the Ebola virus can be defeated.
I'll wager Nancy Writebol and Dr. Rick Sacra will attest the human body has the capacity to protect us, even against this deadly virus, if and when the right antibodies are present. Chances are 26 year-old nurse, Nina Pham, and Ashoka Mukpo, NBC's freelance cameraman, will soon be added to the exclusive list of survivors. Writebol, Sacra, Mukpo and Pham each received priceless transfusions from Brantly. And I'm told Brantly had received a transfusion from a young ebola survivor.
Clearly there are limits on the quantity on whole blood our bodies can produce.
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Yesterday, Landau pointed to a published serological study made in Gabon, Africa by a French team four years ago -- a collection of epidemiological data on Ebloa fever and blood samplings.
Strikingly, French say they found a subset that had natural immunity to the ebola virus. The team, lead by Pierre Becquart, reported 15.3% of the Gabonese population possessed a natural immunity even in areas where no epidemic had ever been recorded.
The French researchers believed, "the results mean that the persons involved have been exposed to the virus but have never developed clinical symptoms of the infection." They concluded "these individuals had indeed specific antibodies against Ebola." Landau tells me chances are adjacent African communities might also yield similar subsets.
Suddenly, bells and whistles -- there's a population that's immune to Ebola in Gabon -- So where are our virologist today? Where are our immunologist? Where are those scrambling to find the missing pieces to complete this puzzle?
Reference:
337 - Possible natural immunity to Ebola?
January 2010
Scientific newssheets Published by Institut de recherche pour le deleloppment
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