Dr. Kent Brantly, the first American who was flown to the U.S. after being diagnosed with Ebola, is donating blood to an NBC News freelance photojournalist, Ashoka Mukpo, who has also contracted the disease.
Mukpo's family told NBC News on Wednesday that the Nebraska Medical Center contacted Dr. Brantly and asked for a plasma donation. The medical experts hope that antibodies from Brantly's system will help cure Mukpo. "This act of kindness and generosity makes me believe in the goodness of humanity," Mukpo's father, Dr. Mitchell Levy, told NBC News.
Dr. Brantly previously donated his blood to Dr. Rick Sacra, another aid worker who was infected with Ebola and has recovered.
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Mukpo is being treated with brincidofovir, an experimental drug that has not been used on Ebola patients before. Thomas Duncan, who is being treated for Ebola in Dallas, has also been prescribed the drug. NBC News reports that at the latest estimates, the current Ebola outbreak has killed at least 3,400 people.
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