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Early study suggests convalescent plasma therapy effective against COVID-19
There is a plasma trial underway at Houston Methodist Hospital. According to early data there, convalescent plasma therapy is working in the fight against COVID-19.
HOUSTON - The FDA has given emergency authorization to treat COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma, which is made using blood from people who have recovered from coronavirus.
The decision comes at the request of President Trump. The FDA says the potential benefits of plasma outweigh the known and potential risks, but critics argue more trials are needed.
There is a plasma trial underway at Houston Methodist Hospital. According to early data there, convalescent plasma therapy is working in the fight against COVID-19.
Almost 35,000 patients in the U.S. have been administered convalescent plasma cells to try to help them win their war against COVID-19.
On March 28, Houston Methodist became the first academic medical center in the nation to infuse critically ill COVID-19 patients with plasma donated from recovered patients. Since then, research physicians have used the treatment on 350 local patients. They tracked the patients at Houston Methodist’s system of eight hospitals for four months.
"We find that 28 days post-transfusion, these individuals had a significantly higher rate of life. So, it really shows that there's a very firm signal of positive response to the convalescent plasma. Importantly, it's even more pronounced to have a positive effect, if it's given within three days of hospitalization. I should say that we also have to use what's called high titer plasma, and that's a fancy term for what it really means is it just has a lot of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to the spike protein part that you've heard a lot about," explains Dr. Jim Musser, Chair of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital.
Dr. Musser says it's fair to say that this treatment is saving lives.
"Now I have to say that we have published our paper, it's the first peer-reviewed paper in the United States to that effect. Importantly, the group led by investigators at the Mayo Medical Center and with Johns Hopkins investigators, they have a paper that has been posted in an online server that essentially shows the same thing: a very strong positive response as judged by 28 days, decreased deaths in those patients, and importantly given within the first three days of hospitalization with this high titer convalescent plasma, so I think it's fair to say that many of us are vectoring into the same findings. I know there's also a similar data set available from some Israeli investigators, so I think we're getting a lot of signals now of this being a very important way to treat COVID patients," says Dr. Musser.
Dr. Musser says they have a good inventory of plasma at Houston Methodist, but they're always in need of more from those who have recovered from the coronavirus.
"We're very fortunate to have all the donors who've been giving up their time and really coming in to donate during this important life-saving material convalescent plasma," states Dr. Musser.
The results appear in the American Journal of Pathology: https://ajp.amjpathol.org
Request to donate plasma at Houston Methodist: https://www.houstonmethodist.org/blood-plasma-donation
How to donate plasma: https://www.giveblood.org/about-donating/donation-types/convalescent-plasma