Irish blood filter may treat Ebola 'from next year'

ProBlood

Brian Byrne

AN Irish start-up company hopes a state-of-the-art blood filtration device which uses no electricity could be used to treat Ebola patients in west Africa from next year.

The device, called ProBlood CP, overcomes the problem of intermittent electricity in remote parts of the continent by using gravity to separate out blood plasma which can be used to treat people suffering from the deadly virus. The World Health Organisation has recommended the use of convalescent plasma (CP) to treat people with the disease.