A Dallas nurse infected with Ebola will received a plasma transfusion from a doctor who survived the disease. The nurse was infected while taking care of the first person diagnosed with the deadly virus in the U.S.
Dr. Kent Brantly, who contracted the disease in Liberia but survived, donated blood to help treat to the Texas Presbyterian Hospital nurse Nina Pham, NBC News reported.
Pham was one of the about 70 health workers who provided care to Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who was first diagnosed with the disease in the U.S. and died October 8. Just like other nurses, Pham was wearing full protective gear, including gowns, gloves, masks and face shields while attending to Duncan, which makes it unclear how she contracted the disease.
Pham went to the hospital on Friday, complaining of flu-like symptoms, after days of self-monitoring as ordered by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Members of the Pham family’s church held a special Mass for her in Fort Worth on Monday night. Rev. Jim Khoi, of the Our Lady of Fatima Church, said Pham’s mother told him the nurse had received a transfusion that could save her life, the Associated Press reported.
“Her mom says that she got the blood from the gentleman, a very good guy. I don’t know his name but he’s very devoted and a very good guy from somewhere,” Khoi said.
Brantly, who contracted the disease in July while working for the Samaritan’s purse, has also donated blood to two other people: Dr. Rick Sacra, an American who also got the virus in Liberia, and NBC News freelance camera operator Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted the disease while covering the outbreak in West Africa.
The World Health Organization projected that West Africa could rise 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months and confirmed the death rate in the current outbreak has risen to 70 percent.
