On Sunday, August 23, the United States health agency, the Federal Drugs Admnistration (FDA), authorized an emergency transfusion of blood plasma to hospitalized coronavirus patients in serious condition. According to US President Donald Trump, it could be “a historic breakthrough that could save a considerable number of lives “. What does it consist of, what do we know about this method and what could it bring in the fight against Covid-19? Let’s do a check in.
Plasma treatment, how does it work?
Used for the first time in 1892 against the bacillus to fight diphtheria, then in 1918 against the Spanish flu, plasma treatment does not date from today. This method involves taking plasma (the liquid part of the blood) from people infected with a virus and having recovered from the virus in order to inject it into sick patients.
This is called convalescent plasma. Because it contains a large number of antibodies, plasma is considered by some specialists to be “liquid gold”. In the case of a virus like Covid-19, it would allow affected patients to develop immune defenses to fight infection.
Studies but few clinical trials
Already authorized in other countries, such as France, China and Austria, plasma treatment remains very controversial. And for good reason, there are a few studies on it but still too few clinical trials. It is therefore still difficult to assess its effectiveness.
For the moment, the only large study took place last June in the American hospital network Mayo Clinic. The specialists there monitored the plasma transfusion of 20,000 patients. According to them, blood plasma transfusions would reduce the death rate of patients when administered early.
At the same time, researchers from Johns Hopkins University conducted a study on the subject, the results of which would be conclusive. The one overseeing the study, Dr. David Sullivan, even likens the plasma treatment to some sort of “immediate vaccine.”
Still too early to talk about efficiency
As it was pointed out previously, the studies and clinical trials are still few to speak about effectiveness. This is why the World Health Organization is more measured. World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan announced last Monday: “UThere are a number of clinical trials underway around the world that focus on convalescent plasma versus standard care. Only a few of them actually published interim results. She added: ” So far, the quality of the evidence is still very low.“
