As a physician in the current climate of the COV-ID 19 pandemic, I am naturally curious about how ER and infectious disease physicians are treating COV-ID 19 patients in the hospital. Of the current treatment options out there at the present time, one that is not currently discussed much by the media is Convalescent plasma. Texas has been on the front lines of testing the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma in the COV-ID 19 pandemic. On March 28th, under emergency use guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration, Houston Methodist Hospital became the first academic medical center in the U.S. to transfuse blood plasma from recovered COV-ID 19 patients into two critically ill patients. The successful treatment of these two critically ill patients spurred the university to launch a study that has led to the release of the first peer reviewed publication on convalescent plasma use in COV-ID 19 in the U.S.
The concept of using convalescent plasma to treat COV-ID 19 is as follows: You take blood plasma from a recovered COV-ID 19 patient and transfuse it to a symptomatic patient, in the hopes that the antibodies produced by the recovered COV-ID 19 patient will help the symptomatic COV-ID 19 patient fight the disease. The transfer of convalescent plasma is not new, having been used since at least 1918 when it was employed to fight the Spanish Flu pandemic. The current study done by Houston Methodist hospital, took 25 severely ill patients with COV-ID 19 and transfused them with convalescent plasma from March 28 through April 14 of this year. The primary outcomes studied were safety and clinical status at day 14 after transfusion. The method used to assess clinical improvement was a modified WHO scale. At day 7 post transfusion, 36% of symptomatic patients showed some improvement, and another 28% were completely recovered, and were discharged. By the endpoint of 14 days, 76% of symptomatic patients had some improvement, and 44% were completely recovered and discharged. There were no adverse effects observed as a result of the convalescent plasma transfusion in any of the 25 patients. This study will soon be published in the American Journal of Pathology , having been accepted for publication on May 21st, 2020.
Given these results, it is imperative, that we , as physician leaders, educate the rest of the health care community about the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma treatment , and encourage its widespread use. I am happy to report that my local hospital, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, is currently using convalescent plasma to treat severely ill COV-ID 19 patients, and has a link on its website about how to donate convalescent plasma. The link is to the Red Cross, and is listed below: https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donations-from-recovered-covid-19-patients.html#donorform
To summarize, you must be at least 17 years old, and weigh at least 110 lbs. Furthermore, you must be in good health, even if you have a chronic condition , have a prior, verified condition of COV-ID 19 , and have now fully recovered from COV-ID 19. However, please go to the link for further details on the criteria you must meet before donating convalescent plasma.
It is my hope that other physicians, will join me, Dr. Eshani Karu, to help promote the use of Convalescent plasma as safe and effective treatment for COV-ID 19, to help our country treat all COV-ID 19 cases and conquer this virus once and for all.