We at HealthDay have been monitoring the growing body of evidence that plasmapheresis may offer some hopes for critically ill COVID-19 patients. With any potential vaccine for COVID-19 still some way off, clinical treatments for those in critical condition in ICU's has become a focus for healthcare researchers.
In her latest article on the topic, Amy Norton looks at evidence emerging out of China that trials involving small numbers near the origin of the virus have produced encouraging results. In the US, the first FDA approved blood transfusion from a survivor to a critically ill patient was delivered at Houston Methodist Hospitals late March, and results are currently being monitored.
In a paper on the possibility of plasmapheresis as a treatment for COVID-19, affiliates of Emory University in Atlanta Georgia have said that if trials involving larger numbers of transfusions show promising results, the treatment "could help change the course of this pandemic."
More Evidence COVID-19 Survivors' Blood Could Help Very Ill Patients
By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, March 30, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A small study out of China bolsters the notion that transfusing the antibody-enriched blood of people who've survived COVID-19 could help patients still fighting for their lives against the disease.
The study of five critically ill patients from near the initial epicenter of the novel coronavirus pandemic found that all five patients survived COVID-19 following the transfusion.
If the findings are replicated in larger trials, widespread use of the treatment "could help change the course of this pandemic," wrote Drs. John Roback and Jeannette Guarner of Emory Medical Laboratories, affiliated with Emory University in Atlanta.
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