Magic Blood? Emory's Ebola Plasma Bank

NBC NEWS   by Maggie Fox                                                                      Jan. 14, 2015
Cup by cup, Emory University is collecting bags of liquid gold from the small club of American Ebola survivors.

They're collecting the plasma as part of an experiment to see if transfusing blood from people who have lived through the horrific infection can save the newly ill. Many of the survivors have been given this so-called convalescent plasma, but no one knows if it's actually helping.

"The protocol allows us to collect and transfuse convalescent plasma from U.S. Ebola survivors," says Dr. Anne Winkler, the Emory pathologist overseeing the study. "This is a completely voluntary process."

The experiment officially started this month. Of the 10 Ebola patients treated in the U.S., Emory treated four in its biocontainment unit: medical missionaries Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, infected in Liberia; nurse Amber Vinson, infected while treating Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan at a Dallas hospital; and Dr. Ian Crozier, infected while working for the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone. And British nurse William Poole, another Ebola survivor, flew to Emory to donate plasma to Crozier.

Most of the patients treated in the U.S. have received plasma.

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http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/magic-blood-emorys-ebola-plasma-bank-n285996