Chinese doctors use plasma therapy for coronavirus patients

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Doctors in Shanghai are using blood plasma drips from people who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat those still fighting the infection, reporting encouraging preliminary results, a Chinese professor said on Monday.

The coronavirus epidemic is believed to have originated in a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and has so far killed 1,770 people and infected more than 70,000 in mainland China.

The Chinese financial center in Shanghai recorded 332 infected cases on Monday, one of whom has died in recent weeks. Lu Hongzhou, professor and co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Center, said that 184 cases were still hospitalized, including 166 mild cases, while 18 were in severe and critical conditions.

He said the hospital had set up a special clinic to administer plasma therapy and select patients who were ready to donate. The blood would be examined to see if he had other illnesses like hepatitis B or C, he added.

“We are convinced that this method can be very effective in our patients,” he said.

There are no fully licensed treatments or vaccines for the new coronavirus, and the process of developing and testing drugs can take several months or even years.

In addition to using plasma therapies, which tap antibodies into the blood of someone who has fought the viral infection, doctors are also trying authorized antiviral medications for other infections to see if they can help.

Chinese scientists are testing two antiviral drugs and preliminary results are expected in a few weeks, while a hospital chief in Wuhan said that plasma infusions from recovered patients have shown encouraging preliminary results.

A senior Chinese health official said on Friday that 1,716 health workers had been infected with the coronavirus and that six of them had died. More than 87% of the infected medical workers were in Hubei.