Plasma Therapy: How far would it help with Coronavirus?
Written by: Hajar Elghareeb
Throughout the past 4 months, tons of researches have been conducted for the sake of finding a treatment for Coronavirus. Despite, most of the patients have been recovered through drugs which helped in alleviation of the symptoms, there is no definitive cure for coronavirus at the moment.
However, there is a promising medical solution for the serious cases of coronavirus, which we can rely on in the treatment process. It’s the plasma therapy, the treatment which proved high efficiency throughout previous pandemics and breakouts (like SARS epidemic, and Epola) comes to the surface once more.
What is Plasma Therapy?
Convalescent plasma therapy is the treatment that is being experimented by the doctors in order to treat the severe cases of coronavirus, and it refers to the blood plasma of the recovered persons.
Through this therapy, blood sample is being drawn from a person who is recovered from coronavirus, and injected into the person who is still ill; especially those patients who didn’t respond to other drugs or treatments, or those who suffer from serious symptoms.
How does Convalescent plasma therapy work for Coronavirus?
People who have recovered from coronavirus must have antibodies in their bloods to this disease; and antibodies are the proteins the immune system creates in large quantities to fight off whichever infections that invade the body.
When patients with coronavirus is being injected with the convalescent plasma, some antibodies transferred from the recovered person to the ill one, this would help the patient’s body in fighting the virus more efficiently.
Some few experiments showed that patients with Covid-19 who have been injected with convalescent plasma, have shown gradual improvement in the symptoms, and their bodies were able to fight the virus more effectively.
Is there any solid evidence that convalescent plasma therapy help with coronavirus?
Convalescent plasma as an idea have been known to help in treatment of previous breakouts, such as Sars epidemic (2003) and Epola (2013-2016). At that time many observational studies confirmed the efficiency of this treatment, since the patients who were received this cure have shown improvement, and even never developed serious complications.
However we still cannot admit the plasma therapy as a cure for coronavirus, due to the lack of experiments conducted on the coronavirus patients up to the moment. And some cases, unfortunately, could not show any progress after being underwent to the convalescent plasma therapy.
Who are the patients who need convalescent plasma therapy the most?
As mentioned before, this therapy is perfect for people whose bodies are not responding for other drugs or treatments. Also it’s advisable for those cases:
- People who often develop severe lung problems, especially acute respiratory distress syndrome.
- People who suffer from chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes or heart diseases.
- People with weakened immune system.
- Health care workers or people who have exposed to someone with coronavirus.
Who can donate?
Everyone who have recovered from covid-19 virus, should feel the responsibility to donate to people who are still suffering. But donors must make sure they are fully recovered from the virus before they donate, since their bodies should be given enough time to create antibodies.
Are there any risk factors for convalescent plasma therapy?
Although the risk factors of getting any health problems after receiving plasma therapy is very low, due to the blood test that been conducted before the donation process in order to find out if there are any infections that would be transmitted, still there are some little risk factors or side effects accompanying this kind of therapy, which we can conclude as:
- Allergic reactions.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Lung damage or problems.
- Infections transmitting, which would include HIV, hepatitis B and C.