Petition Treatment of Ebola hemorrhagic fever with blood transfusions from convalescent patients

Treating Ebola patients with blood transfusions from survivors of the disease should be given immediate priority among all other experimental Ebola therapies and vaccines under consideration for this outbreak. The plants take time to grow whilst survivors can replenish and donate blood a lot quicker. Dr. Brantly received blood transfusion "a unit of blood" from a 14-year-old survivor while still in Liberia and three ebola patients who received plasma donations from him have all survived.

In 1995, Congo, seven of eight infected people given the therapy survived during an outbreak with an 80% fatality rate. The average case fatality rate for Ebola is around 50% in West Africa. The more people that are immune the harder it will be for the virus to spread. Trained medical staff and necessary equipment are required to check blood type compatibility and also for transmittable diseases in preparation for transfusion of whole blood or purified serum from Ebola survivors.