Articles: Testing blood plasma transfusion for Covid-19 symptoms
Turkey Starts Testing Plasma Therapy as Potential COVID-19 Treatment - Red Crescent
(sputniknews April 7 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202004071078869850-turkey-starts-testing-plasma-therapy-as-potential-covid-19-treatment/
ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey has started testing plasma therapy as a possible treatment for the coronavirus disease, Turkish Red Crescent Society President Kerem Kinik said on Tuesday.
"We are waiting for blood donations from all the heroes who defeated the coronavirus 14 days after their discharge from hospitals, in order to save the lives of other patients", Kinik said, as quoted by the Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
According to Kinik, every person who has recovered from COVID-19 can donate blood three times a week.
Kursat Demir, a recently recovered Turkish doctor, became the first plasma donor in the country, TRT reported. Demir donated blood at the Red Crescent’s facility.
The plasma of recovered patients contains antibodies that can be transfused into other patients who have contracted the disease.
Turkey has so far confirmed 30,217 COVID-19 cases and 649 deaths from coronavirus-related complications.
Blood centers will collect plasma from COVID-19 survivors in bid for treatment
(nbcnews April 2020)
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/blood-centers-will-collect-plasma-covid-19-survivors-bid-treatment-n1174011
A few clinical trials have started testing the use of survivor plasma for coronavirus.
Blood donation centers across the U.S. are ramping up efforts to collect plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 in hopes it could be used to save the lives of others infected with the pandemic disease.
Under guidelines released Tuesday by the AABB, an international nonprofit agency focused on transfusion medicine and cellular therapies, dozens of community blood centers nationwide could become a key source for the century-old treatment known as convalescent plasma therapy.
The treatment uses blood products taken from people who have recovered from a viral infection and injects them into those still suffering. The experimental practice was used during the devastating 1918 flu, as well as to treat measles in the 1930s. In recent years, plasma therapy been used to treat victims of Ebola, SARS and H1N1 influenza.
The treatment is not a sure thing.
Studies suggest that using the plasma had some success in reducing symptoms and death in past outbreaks, but its true efficacy has not been proved in rigorous clinical trials. In the current outbreak, anecdotal evidence from China shows that passive antibody therapy appears to help sick patients fight off COVID-19 until they can develop antibodies on their own.
Given there’s no treatment or vaccine for COVID-19, experts say it’s a promising option to try.
“There isn’t anything else out there,” said Dr. Louis Katz, a blood industry expert who is leading the AABB’s working group on convalescent plasma. “There are historical precedents that it may be beneficial and enough early data that it’s safe.”
The new guidelines come a week after the federal Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of convalescent plasma by doctors for individual patients who are critically ill with COVID-19. Houston Methodist Hospital was the first academic medical center to use the therapy. Since Saturday, the hospital has treated two COVID-19 patients with donor plasma, a spokesperson said. Results are pending.
A few sites in the U.S., including the New York Blood Center, started collecting plasma last week. And a few clinical trials have started testing the use of survivor plasma for COVID-19. The American Red Cross has set up a website to collect information about potential plasma donors.
As the AABB and another group, America’s Blood Centers, join the effort, the new rollout could expand the practice exponentially, Katz said.
“This is all medicine on the fly, right?” Katz said. “We don’t have the randomized controlled trials. We’re going to do the best we can.”