Doctors treating Ebola patient Dr. Rick Sacra say they may have stumbled on the secret cure for him — Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. Sacra’s getting his appetite back, doctors at the Biocontainment Unit at The Nebraska Medical Center said Friday.

“He really wanted some ice cream,” Sacra’s wife Debbie said in a statement released by the hospital. “He’d tried a few different kinds over the last several days, and none of them were all that appetizing to him. But we finally found something in the hospital convenience store that really hit the spot — a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.”

Ebola patients lose fluids and weight with near-constant vomiting and diarrhea. Patients in modern facilities get rehydration fluids and nutrients intravenously. Sacra’s doctors said they wanted him to start eating at least 1,000 calories a day by mouth. “With that pint of ice cream checking in at just over 1,100 calories, he might easily reach that goal,” the hospital said in a statement. “Hard to believe it, but ice cream was just what the doctor ordered,” said Debbie.

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