Ian Nies wrote:
>> Has anyone heard about the doctor in Zaire who injected
> a nurse that became
> infected with ebola virus, with the blood of a patient
> who survived ebola
> infection? The story is that the nurse having been
> injected with patient's
> blood recovered and survived ebola infection as a result .
>> Sent on behalf of P. Nino, curious patient with AIDS.
I have not heard that story. However, it is possible.
Many diseases can be fought with such methods. The patient
who survived the Ebola infection would have a high level of
antibodies against Ebola. Thus a pint of blood from this
patient may have enough antibodies to fight the infection in
the nurse. In order to give a pint of whole blood, the donor
and nurse would have to be of compatible blood types. I
believe there is a method of purifying antibodies, so that
just the antibody fraction of blood is used, instead of whole
blood. If I remember correctly, there have even been antibodies
raised in horses, which are used to fight Diphtheria in humans.
However, not all diseases can be fought with such
methods. Ebola virus causes a rapid/acute disease and HIV
does not. There was a study:
F.Bex, P.Hermans, S.Sprecher, A.Achour, R.Badjou, C.Desgranges,
J.Cogniaux, P.Franchioli, C.Vanhulle, and A.Lachgar.
Syngeneic adoptive transfer of anti-human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV-1)-primed lymphocytes from a vaccinated HIV-seronegative
individual to his HIV-1-infected identical twin.
Blood 8484:3317--3326, 1994.
In which one of a pair of identical twins was vaccinated
against HIV, with the hope of saving the other twin from
HIV infection. I think the long-term result was not successful,
but I am not sure.
--
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