Ebola blood-therapy team set up

An international team of scientists has been set up to determine the effectiveness of using the blood of Ebola-survivors as a treatment, the BBC reports.

It is hoped the antibodies used by the immune system to fight Ebola can be transferred from a survivor to a patient.

The study will start in Guinea and is led by the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.

The European Union has given 2.9m euros (£2.3m) to fund the project.

There are no widely available, proven drugs or vaccines for Ebola.

The World Health Organization has backed the use of survivors' blood as the worst outbreak of Ebola in history continues to get worse.

Blood medicine

People produce antibodies in the blood in an attempt to fight off an Ebola infection.

In theory, those antibodies can be transferred from a survivor into a sick patient to give their immune system a boost.

However, large-scale data on the effectiveness of the therapy is lacking.

Studies on the 1995 outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) indicated seven out of eight people survived after being given the therapy.

Is it safe?

Johan van Griensven, from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, said: "Blood and plasma therapy are medical interventions with a long history, safely used for other infectious diseases.

"We want to find out whether this approach works for Ebola, is safe and can be put into practice to reduce the number of deaths in the present outbreak.

"Ebola survivors contributing to curb the epidemic by donating blood could reduce fear of the disease and improve their acceptance in the communities."

In total more than 4,800 people have died of Ebola.