Thank you. That is more in line with the sort of information I’m trying to get my mind around. It’s a multi-faceted approach: drugs, transfusions, protocols. The one standout in the media seems to keep coming back as plasma donation and I don’t get a clear picture of other attempts. The experimental drug was a big deal, yes? But we don’t hear much about its interaction in these subsequent cases.
Yes, Unlike the donated plasma Zmapp is a huge dose of monoclonal antibodies, binding to the viron, transferring the virus to the macrophage to be processed by the immune system (activating T-cells which kill infected cells).
Unless the patient gets early activation of CD-8 T-cells they almost all die.
This is an RNA retrovirus. HIV is also an RNA retrovirus (the similarities end there) and there are anti-virals that may also be effective. These are prohibitively expensive for West Africa but may be doable in first world countries.
An effective vaccine may be possible but remember we've been looking for a vaccine for HIV to no effect.