HealthDay Reports: Plasma Therapy Aids Recovery in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients
Plasma transfusions from recovered patients have been used since at least 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic, and a new study finds they may also help people who are critically ill with COVID-19.
Plasma Therapy Aids Recovery in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients
WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The blood plasma of people who have recovered from the new coronavirus infection may help critically ill COVID-19 patients recover, a new study finds.
Of 25 sick patients given plasma transfusions, 19 improved and 11 left the hospital, the researchers reported. None of the patients had side effects from the transfusion.
"While physician scientists around the world scrambled to test new drugs and treatments against the COVID-19 virus, convalescent serum therapy emerged as potentially one of the most promising strategies," explained lead researcher Dr. James Musser, chair of the department of pathology and genomic medicine at Houston Methodist hospital. "With no proven treatments or cures for COVID-19 patients, now was the time in our history to move ahead rapidly."