Question: Do you think we will find a cure for Ebola?

Chloe Kinsella answered on 17 Nov 2014:

Yes I think we will find a cure for Ebola. It’s a scary and complex virus but scientists are working hard researching its interaction with humans. I have read about potential cures such as blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies. At the moment two potential vaccines are undergoing human safety testing.

Also two people in the USA that have contracted Ebola seem to have recovered. Scientists have found some evidence that once a person has recovered from an Ebola virus infection, they are immune to it. Other studies of blood samples taken from Ebola survivors a few years after they became infected with the virus show that these people have developed antibodies that can neutralize the Ebola virus. This suggests that Ebola survivors are immune to the disease, and will not get infected again.

Vaccines are usually made of an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins. Perhaps if doctors could inject a really tiny dose of Ebola into people, our bodies could create their own antibodies, and we would become protected from the virus.