Immunoglobulins are extracted through donated blood plasma. They allow tohelp the immune system fight certain diseases, insofar as they contain antibodies. However, currently the stocks of immunoglobulins are at their lowest. Tensions which are explained in particular by the drop, at the global level, in the collection of blood and plasma in the context of Covid-19, as explained by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM).
Immunoglobulins essential for certain diseases
A list of priority cases for receiving immunoglobulins has therefore been drawn up. Kawasaki disease, for example, of the inflammatory type, which experienced a strong surge in the summer of 2020 in children. Robert Debré Hospital revealed a 500% increase, when the disease is usually rare: only 230 patients had been registered at the hospital between 2005 and 2020. It was then suspected that it could be linked to Covid -19 in hospitalized children.
Another priority pathology for immunoglobulins: Guillain-Barré syndromea neurological disease which also has a potential link with the crisis we are going through, since it is one of the side effects (very rare however) of the Astra Zeneca vaccine.
In this hierarchy of diseases to have access to immunoglobulins, there is also prophylactic treatment (prevention) of people at risk who have been in contact with measles (pregnant women, babies under 6 months or immunocompromised people) or people who have undergone a transplant.
This is not the first time that the stock has dropped to the point of causing concern among health authorities, a think tank has been set up to find a strategy to prevent it. Work is also underway within the Ministry of Solidarity and Health to increase plasma collection over the long term and thus optimize the security of the supply of these treatments on French territory.
Read also:
- Infographic: the conditions for being able to donate blood
- Blood group: what this classification means