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Video journalist with Ebola receives blood transfusion from survivor

Ashoka Mukpo is loaded into an ambulance, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, after arriving in Omaha, Neb. Mukpo, an American video journalist who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center, where he will be treated for Ebola.
Ashoka Mukpo is loaded into an ambulance, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, after arriving in Omaha, Neb. Mukpo, an American video journalist who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center, where he will be treated for Ebola. (AP Photo/The World-Herald, James R. Burnett

OMAHA, Neb. – The first American flown back to the U.S. for treatment of Ebola this summer has donated blood to the most recent one to return from West Africa with the disease.

The Nebraska Medical Center said Wednesday that it called Dr. Kent Brantly on Tuesday to tell him his blood type matches that of Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance video journalist who arrived at the medical centre Monday.

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READ MORE: Journalist with Ebola arrives at Nebraska hospital

The hospital says Brantly was driving through Kansas City, Mo., and was able to give blood locally that was flown to Omaha. It says Mukpo will receive the transfusion Wednesday.

READ MORE: US health providers expand their Ebola precautions

Such transfusions are believed to help Ebola patients because a survivor’s blood contains antibodies to fight the disease.

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Brantly also donated blood to the first Ebola patient treated at the Nebraska hospital.

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