In late July, when it looked like Dr. Kent Brantly wasn\u2019t going to make it, a small news item escaped Liberia. It spoke of Brantly\u2019s treatment \u201d\u201c not of the Ebola vaccine, Zmapp, which Brantly later got. But of a blood transfusion. He had \u201creceived a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who had survived Ebola because of Dr. Brantly\u2019s care,\u201d\u009d the missive said.<\/p>\n
Now months later, Brantly, who has since recovered from his battle with the virus, has passed on the favor. A 26-year-old Dallas nurse named Nina Pham, who contracted the illness while treating the United State\u2019s first Ebola patient, has received Brantly\u2019s blood. It\u2019s not the first time it has been used to treat Ebola patients. Recovered Ebola victim Richard Sacra got it, as well as U.S. journalist Ashoka Mukpo, who last night said he\u2019s on the mend.<\/p>\n
Injecting the blood of a patient like Brantly who has recovered from Ebola and developed certain antibodies is a decades-old, but promising method of treatment that, academics and health officials agree, could be one of the best means to fight Ebola. Called a convalescent serum, it might also save Pham, an alum of Texas Christian University.<\/p>\n