OMAHA, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Dr. Richard Sacra, the third U.S. citizen to contract the Ebola virus, has received two blood transfusions from American Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly.
"We're hoping it [would] jumpstart his immunity," Dr. Phillip Smith, head of Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit, said in a conference call with the media.
Brantly was released from Emory University Hospital in August after being successfully treated by the experimental drug ZMapp. Although there are no remaining doses of ZMapp available, Sacra is being treated with a different experimental drug. Scara also has the same blood type as Brantly, allowing for a pair of plasma transfusions in hopes Scara will build up antibodies against the disease.
"To survive [Ebola] you have to build up enough antibodies to [fight the virus]. We were hoping to buy [Scara] some time, to give his immune system time to battle the disease."
Doctors at Nebraska Medical Center Center will not release the name of the experimental drug given to Scara, citing lack of available information on its benefits and reservations about misleading the public into thinking it is a cure.
"We don't know if this is having an effect at all. We just administered everything we had access to, honestly."
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