--- title: Ebola Survivors' Blood: WHO Says To Treat Patients With It description: The World Health Organization recommended the use of Ebola survivors' blood to treat those suffering from the deadly disease Friday. canonical: https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-05T21:36:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:31.703Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola Survivors' Blood: WHO Says To Treat Patients With It og:description: The World Health Organization recommended the use of Ebola survivors' blood to treat those suffering from the deadly disease Friday. og:url: https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4f72e69495893d0/6986a064d0b6f29316305c83/kent-brantly-ebola2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Dr. Kent Brantly an Ebola patient at Emory Hospital, stands with his wife, Amber Brantly, during a press conference announcing his release from the hospital on August 21, 2014 in Atlanta. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola Survivors' Blood: WHO Says To Treat Patients With It twitter:description: The World Health Organization recommended the use of Ebola survivors' blood to treat those suffering from the deadly disease Friday. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4f72e69495893d0/6986a064d0b6f29316305c83/kent-brantly-ebola2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Officials Urge Use of Ebola Survivors' Blood to Treat Patients ## Video: Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/G194AmTC.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2014-08-13. Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 5, 2014 9:36 PM UTC  Dr. Kent Brantly an Ebola patient at Emory Hospital, stands with his wife, Amber Brantly, during a press conference announcing his release from the hospital on August 21, 2014 in Atlanta. Dr. Kent Brantly an Ebola patient at Emory Hospital, stands with his wife, Amber Brantly, during a press conference announcing his release from the hospital on August 21, 2014 in Atlanta.Jessica McGowan—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 5, 2014 9:36 PM UTC Health officials on Friday [recommended](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ebola-ravages-health-care-sierra-leone-capital) the use of [Ebola](http://topics.time.com/ebola/) survivors’ blood to treat those suffering from an outbreak of the deadly disease in West Africa. “We have to change the sense that there is no hope,” Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a conference of health experts, the Associated Press reports. The use of blood was one method on a long list of experimental treatments suggested at the conference. RNA-based treatments and pre-existing drugs designed for other diseases were among the other potential options. The experts stressed the need for rigorous data-keeping and evaluation to determine the efficacy of each potential solution. [Kent Brantly](http://time.com/3270016/ebola-survivor-kent-brantly/), an American doctor who survived an Ebola infection, was given blood from another Ebola survivor during his infection. He also received ZMapp, a vaccine that has been developed to address the disease. Experts said it will take time to produce more ZMapp and another promising vaccine that could stem the spread of Ebola, which has already killed more than 2,000 people in West Africa. The Obama Administration has asked Congress to provide funds to accelerate the development of ZMapp. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/"},"headline":"Officials Urge Use of Ebola Survivors' Blood to Treat Patients","datePublished":"2014-09-05T21:36:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:31.703Z","description":"Amid outbreak that has killed more than 2,000","url":"https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","medicine","Disease","WHO","ebola","blood"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4f72e69495893d0/6986a064d0b6f29316305c83/kent-brantly-ebola2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4f72e69495893d0/6986a064d0b6f29316305c83/kent-brantly-ebola2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dr. Kent Brantly an Ebola patient at Emory Hospital, stands with his wife, Amber Brantly, during a press conference announcing his release from the hospital on August 21, 2014 in Atlanta.","caption":"Dr. Kent Brantly an Ebola patient at Emory Hospital, stands with his wife, Amber Brantly, during a press conference announcing his release from the hospital on August 21, 2014 in Atlanta.","creditText":"Jessica McGowan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/","name":"Officials Urge Use of Ebola Survivors' Blood to Treat Patients"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola","description":"Meet The CDC Doctors Fighting Ebola","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/G194AmTC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-13T23:41:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/G194AmTC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/","duration":"PT2M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3275671/who-ebola-survivors-blood/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```