WHO: Use Ebola survivors' blood to treat patients

BY MARIA CHENG AND CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY

The Associated PressSeptember 5, 2014

LONDON — Desperate to restore hope amid the Ebola crisis, the World Health Organization said Friday it would accelerate the use of experimental treatments and vaccines to contain the expanding epidemic in West Africa.

After convening a two-day meeting of more than 200 experts to figure out which experimental Ebola treatments should be used first, the WHO said survivor's blood could be used immediately, tapping into the thousands of people who have survived the virus which has about a 50 percent death rate and no licensed treatments.

"We have to change the sense that there is no hope," Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, a WHO assistant director-general, said during a press conference in Geneva on Friday. The evidence for whether blood from survivors can help Ebola patients is mixed.

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