PLASMA TRANSFUSION: Blood from recovered coronavirus victims helps patient come off ventilator in just two days
In trial, 10 severely-ill patients made recoveries after receiving antibodies from people who had successfully fought the Covid-19 virus
A coronavirus patient was able to come off ventilation just two days after receiving the blood plasma of people who have recovered from the virus in a breakthrough described as "remarkable" by scientists.
The first trials looking at whether antibodies of people who have successfully fought the virus can help others do the same found that all 10 severely ill patients made a speedy recovery.
The treatment, known as convalescent plasma (CP) therapy, was used during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic before vaccines or antivirals were available.
It relies on the fact that the blood of people who have recovered contains powerful antibodies trained to fight the virus.
There is currently no treatment for coronavirus, and vaccines are unlikely to be available until the end of the year at the earliest.
Researchers from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine said the findings suggest blood plasma therapy is a safe and promising treatment for severe Covid-19 patients, and called for larger clinical trials.
The patients' liver and lung function, as well as blood oxygen levels, were also found to have improved.
The numbers of disease-fighting white blood cells – lymphocytes – also increased, and antibody levels remained high after CP transfusion, the researchers said.
One 42-year-old man, who was seriously ill and on a ventilator, was breathing for himself again after two days, a result labelled "remarkable" by the scientists.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US approved the use of CT therapy as an experimental treatment in clinical trials, and for critical patients without other options.
In the UK, it has been reported that the NHS may start giving the therapy to hospital patients in the near future.
-MLS. EUGENE MOBE OPOKU
© 2020
