Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly has donated a unit of blood to treat the third American aid worker infected with the virus as doctors fight to save the patient’s life.
Brantly flew to Nebraska last week to donate his blood which was a perfect match, to use to treat Dr. Rick Sacra, an American missionary who contracted Ebola in Liberia. Sacra is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He has received two blood plasma transfusions from Brantly, Dr. Phil Smith, director of the Nebraska hospital's biocontainment unit, said Thursday at a news conference.
“We’re hoping to jump start his immunity,” Smith said.
"It really meant a lot to us that he was willing to give that donation so soon after his own recovery," Sacra's wife, Debbie Sacra, also told a news conference. She spoke to Brantly's wife, Amber. "Weboth marveled at the fact that they had the same blood type."
On Friday, the World Health Organization endorsed the transfusion of blood plasma from people who have survived Ebola, an old-school remedy that is already prevalent in Africa, as a treatment for the disease. The blood plasma of people who have recovered from Ebola contains antibodies that were successful in fighting off the virus. Those antibodies transfused into an infected person may help the recipient fight the disease as well.
There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of those infected. Brantly and Writebol made full recoveries after being treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, but it is unknown whether the drug assisted in their recoveries. There are no more doses of ZMapp available.
Sacra is being treated with a different experimental drug, which his doctors have refused to name. He is also receiving "aggressive supportive care" that includes intravenous nutrition and electrolyte supplements, the biocontainment unit's Dr. Angela Hewlett said at Thursday's news conference.
Sacra's relatives told the media Monday that he was able to eat breakfast for the first time since arriving in the United States. He is continuing to show progress in fighting the disease, his doctors said Thursday, and has been sharing notes he took about his symptoms before being brought back to United States
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