Doctors "very optimistic" about American doctor with Ebola, wife says

Dr. Rick Sacra received two blood transfusions from Dr. Kent Brantly last weekend after arriving at the Nebraska Medical Center, Dr. Phil Smith said Thursday. Sacra also has been given an experimental drug that doctors refuse to identify, and he has received supportive care that includes IV fluids.

Sacra is a close friend of Brantly from their missionary work. Brantly was one of the first two Americans treated for Ebola in Atlanta last month.

"It really meant a lot to us that he was willing to give that donation so quickly after his own recovery," Sacra's wife, Debbie, said.

Sacra, 51, and Brantly, 33, both arrived at the hospital in Omaha last Friday. Brantly tried to visit with Sacra via video conference after he donated his blood to the hospital's blood bank for testing, but Debbie Sacra said Thursday her husband doesn't remember that encounter. The blood was reduced to plasma before the first transfusion.

The transfusions are believed to help a patient fight off the Ebola virus because the survivor's blood carries antibodies for the disease.

More than 2,200 people have died in West Africa during the current Ebola outbreak, although Ebola hasn't been confirmed as the cause of all those deaths.

Debbie Sacra told CBS News that, after his recovery, her husband will return to Liberia to help further train local doctors. "He's worked with many of the Liberian doctors, the ones just coming out of medical school, and it's his favorite thing to do," she said.

Rick Sacra, who had been working at a hospital in Liberia with the North Carolina-based charity SIM was the third American aid worker with the Ebola virus to be flown to the U.S. for treatment.

Smith said doctors wanted to treat Sacra aggressively to give him the best chance of recovering. But he said that makes it hard to determine what is helping him improve.

The doctors treating Sacra are talking with physicians at Emory University Hospital who treated two previous Ebola patients and are currently treating another Ebola patient. They hope to develop new treatments based on their experiences.

Debbie Sacra believes the attention on her husband's work will help inspire others combat the Ebola crisis in Western Africa. "We just hope hope that there can be really big coming together of the resources and the personal to get the job done," she said.

Officials announced Thursday that Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen's foundation is donating $9 million to help the U.S. government fight the disease in West Africa. The grant will help establish emergency operations centers to better track and respond to Ebola.

The fourth American with Ebola arrived Tuesday at Emory in Atlanta. Few details have been released about that patient.