Convalescent blood plasma was also successfully used during the 1918 flu pandemic. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University now have approval from the United States federal government to test whether COVID convalescent blood plasma – 19 can help protect against coronavirus.
The hope is that blood plasma transfusions will strengthen the immune systems of healthcare providers, first responders and others at high risk, the researchers said.
COVID-19 survivors generate antibodies to fight disease and plasma is the part of the blood that contains these antibodies.
“The ability to conduct a prophylaxis trial will tell us if plasma is effective in protecting our healthcare workers and first responders from COVID-19,” said Arturo Casadevall, an infectious disease expert from Johns Hopkins, in a statement. .
Plasma transfusions are a common treatment for patients with severe bleeding; and scientists hope the same treatment can be used both as preventive therapy and to help boost the immune systems of already sick people.
Treatment with blood plasma works much like a vaccine: antibodies in the plasma of survivors fight the disease and give the affected person more time to make antibodies. theirs.
The United States is not the only country that will conduct these tests: Canada, China, South Korea and Singapore will participate
“Historically, it has worked,” said Dr. Jeffrey Henderson, associate professor of medicine and molecular microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Before having vaccines, it was used for infectious diseases like measles and diphtheria.”
The convalescent’s blood plasma was also used successfully during the 1918 flu pandemic, he said.
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