Duke students brainstorm answers to Ebola

Maranzano, a Duke University Medical School student, and his team, along with four others, were finalists out of 22 teams of Duke students tasked with finding a solution to stop the virus’ spread.

His team’s idea – use Ebola survivors to treat patients.

"Ebola survivors may have some immunity because they have had Ebola in the past," he said. “Use Ebola survivors to do the low skill jobs in an Ebola treatment center. This will hopefully address the healthcare worker crisis there.”

Other teams brainstormed ways to prevent the virus’ spread, from tracking it through cell phones to using glow-in-the-dark paint to train healthcare workers.

The competition, sponsored by Duke’s Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator, consisted of students from different disciplines, including business, nursing and public policy.

Duke’s winner moves on to a bigger competition.

“Ultimately, some will be funded to fight the Ebola outbreak in west Africa,” said Kim Langsam, the accelerator’s program director.

As for Maranzano’s team – they didn’t win.

The winning team came up with an idea to create kits with supplies for health care workers to treat patients.