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Can we treat Ebola with plasma? The results are in

Research

During the Ebola outbreak of 1995 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, eight patients with Ebola were given blood transfusions from people who had recently recovered from Ebola. Seven of them survived.

The blood of people who have recently recovered from an infection contains antibodies that the body develops naturally to fight that infection. The transfusion of these antibodies into infected individuals (as whole blood, plasma, or concentrated antibodies) has a long history and has been proposed as a possible treatment for Ebola virus disease.

Read the full article on The Conversation website, written by Peter Horby and Catrin Moore, Epidemic Diseases Research Group, Nuffield Department of Medicine

Oxford is a subscribing member of The Conversation. Find out how you can write for The Conversation.

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