American researchers are hopeful of being able to treat patients infected with Covid-19 through the transfusion of blood plasma.
- Plasma transfusions help patients’ immune systems fight the virus
- Only 1% of patients who received blood plasma transfusions had serious complications
- The study needs to be confirmed since it did not do a placebo and the benefits were only seen when the epidemic was on the decline
A new hope for treatment to cure patients infected with Covid-19 has appeared in the United States. Mayo Clinic researchers tested 20,000 hospitalized patients for blood plasma transfusions. This treatment relies on people recovering from an infection having anti-virus antibodies floating in their blood. Plasma transfusions help the immune system of patients to fight the virus. The researchers published the study results in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
A treatment that works best against the disease when taken early
The treatment trail is encouraging since only 1% of patients who received blood plasma transfusions had serious complications. “What emerges from this study is that the treatment is inexpensive and the mortality rate in sick patients is quite low.”, enthuses Michael Joyner, anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic, who led the study. Of the first 5,000 patients who received the treatment, the mortality rate within one week was 12%. After adjustment, and in particular transfusions before the patient was at an advanced stage of the disease, this rate fell to 9%.
In addition to transfusion earlier in the disease, the researchers posit that they were also able to improve in the treatment of patients with Covid-19, as explained in the washington post. People with this condition may also have started presenting to hospital with a less severe stage of the disease before receiving this treatment.
Limits and results to be confirmed
These results should be taken with caution since the benefits of this treatment were only observed when the epidemic was on the decline. In addition, this study was not done as part of a clinical trial with the use of placebo. In China, a study published in the journal of the American Medical Association did not show any beneficial effect of this treatment, but the latter was quickly interrupted and never recruited enough patients.
The researchers said they are working on additional studies. They said they were comparing patients who received plasma to patients who did not. They also analyze the level of antibodies that neutralize the virus in the plasma to see if there is any evidence that the dosage affects the result.
.
