MPH’s Schaffner: Antibodies in blood plasma from Ebola survivors still may be a treatment
Reuters: Treating Ebola victims with blood plasma donated by Ebola survivors failed to significantly increase the odds of recovering from the deadly virus, according to a field test of the experimental treatment. The conclusion is based on the cases of 84 people treated with plasma in Conakry, Guinea, in the hope that the antibodies in the fluid would help patients fight off the virus the way they did in the surviving donors.
"We might have anticipated there would be an effect" with plasma from survivors, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, who was not connected with the research. The fact that no benefit was seen "does not mean antibodies to Ebola are not going to be a good treatment," he cautioned. The plasma donors might not have been fully recovered, he noted, so the fluid might not have been rich in antibodies.