Looking towards a serum from Ebola survivors to aid in outbreak treatment efforts

Eight months since the Ebola virus showed its face in a village in Guinea in December, and with more than 3,000 total Ebola-related deaths, the international community is scaling up response efforts, which until now have been far from adequate. These new actions include fast tracking treatment and vaccine development for the hemorrhagic fever that does not yet have a medical cure. One treatment possibility that has garnered some optimism in the last few weeks, after being given to an American doctor who contracted Ebola in Liberia and is now in recovery, is the use of a convalescent serum — or the blood plasma from a person who has recovered from the virus. The serum, which the World Health Organization calls a “safe treatment,” contains antibodies and is administered as an infusion to an Ebola-stricken patient. The potential success of this treatment method has received attention in the international community, and also...