Plasma Donation and COVID-19
Plasma donation is a specific form of blood donation whereby plasma, the clear liquid component of whole blood, is collected during donation through a process known as plasmapheresis. During plasmapheresis, an apheresis machine removes and separates the plasma from the whole blood. As plasma contains nutrients, proteins, and antibodies, it can be used to develop treatments for diseases. Plasma used for these purposes is called convalescent plasma.
A bag of blood plasma. Image Credit: Pavel Kosolapov / Shutterstock.com
Convalescent plasma has been used in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases for centuries. It is considered a form of ‘passive immunization’ as plasma collected from patients who have recovered from a previous infection and developed adaptive immunity, demonstrated by the presence of antigen-specific antibodies. Upon transfusion into another patient, the plasma can neutralize the disease pathogen, eventually eradicating i
Convalescent Plasma Therapy In Blood Cancer Patients With COVID-19 by Pooja Shete on February 15, 2021 at 12:37 PM
A new data showed that treatment with convalescent plasma improved the survival rate of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 who also had hematologic malignances that compromise the immune system.
Patients who received convalescent plasma from donors who had recovered from COVID-19 had a death rate of 13.3 percent when compared to 24.8 percent in patients who did not receive it.
The data is released by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19).
The difference was more pronounced in patients admitted to intensive care units where patients treated with convalescent plasma had a death rate of 15.8 percent as compared to 46.9 percent for those who weren t.