Researchers at the Mayo Clinic reported Friday a strong hint that COVID-19 survivors’ blood plasma is helping other patients recover, in what appeared to be a breakthrough in coronavirus treatment.
However, other health experts warn that there is no definitive evidence that the treatment works, as evidence only suggests that it may be a successful cure.
More than 64,000 patients in the U.S. have received convalescent plasma, a century-old approach to protect against flu and knives before vaccinations.
It is a go-to tactic when new diseases appear, and history suggests that it works against some, but not all, infections.
However, there is still no solid evidence to support the coronavirus in the concern that if healthcare professionals go crazy for a treatment, they will never get a clear answer as to whether it is the best treatment. or not.
A former coronavirus patient donated convalescent plasma to the Oklahoma Blood Institute on August 12. Plasma of recovered patients would be used in an experimental treatment study for current coronavirus patients now showing success
Preliminary data from 35,000 coronavirus patients treated with plasma provide what Mayo lead researcher Dr Michael Joyner called on Friday ‘signals of effectiveness’.
There were fewer deaths among people who received plasma within three days of diagnosis, and also among those given plasma that contained the highest levels of anti-antibodies for fighting strokes, Joyner and colleagues reported.
However, experts are concerned because this was not a formal study.
The patients were treated in various ways in hospitals around the country as part of a food and medicine management program, designed to speed up access to the experimental therapy.
That so-called ‘extended access’ program follows what happens to the recipients, but it can not prove the plasma – and not other care they received – was the real reason for improvement.
Rigorous studies around the country have been designed to provide this evidence, by comparing similar patients randomly assigned to receive plasma as a dumb infusion in addition to regular care.
But those studies are difficult to complete as the virus grows and grows in different cities.
Some patients have also requested plasma instead of agreeing to a study that could give them a place.
‘For 102 years we have been discussing whether or not convalescent plasma works,’ said Drs. Mila Ortigoza of New York University, referring to the use of plasma in the 1918 pandemic.
This time, ‘we really need uncontested evidence,’ he said.
Ortigoza is co-leading one such study, which this week expands to three other states – Connecticut, Florida and Texas.
Her team is also working on pool data with several other clinical trials in other regions, hoping for faster responses.
‘There is concern about when there will be a clear answer,’ agreed infection control specialist Dr Jeffrey Henderson of Washington University in St. Louis. Louis.
Pictured, a nurse holds bags of blood plasma donated by a COVID-19 survivor at blood bank in Bogota, Colombia on August 14. Mayo Clinic researchers report a strong hint that COVID-19 survivors’ blood plasma is helping other patients recover. But there is no evidence, and some experts are worried if they, in the midst of emphasis on treatment, will ever get a clear answer
Pictured, a doctor contains a bag of blood plasma donated by a COVID-19 survivor at a blood bank in La Paz, Bolivia. Experts have warned that it may not be the best treatment
He hopes the clinical trials will push forward, but said the Mayo report is consistent with smaller, earlier plasma studies and ‘an example of making the best of the available data’.
When the body encounters a new germ, it makes proteins called antibodies that are specifically targeted to fight this particular infection.
The antibodies flow into plasma – the yellowish, liquid part of blood.
Because it takes a few weeks for antibodies to form, the hope is that transferring antibodies from someone else can help patients fight the virus before kicking in their own immune system.
Mayo’s findings were posted online prior to scientific peer review.
They show that 20 percent of people who died within three days after being diagnosed with high antibody plasma died within 30 days compared to 30 percent of people who were later treated with low antibody plasma.
The FDA has closely examined whether the evidence is good enough to allow the so-called emergency use of convalescent plasma, a step that would make it even harder to complete more stringent tests.
The FDA did not immediately comment Friday.
Tens of thousands of COVID-19 survivors have donated their plasma, and blood banks have issued calls for even more to meet the demand as the coronavirus continues to destroy the US
According to AABB, the American Association of Blood Banks, a quarter of hospitals that check it weekly report waiting more than 24 hours to receive requested plasma.
Unless plasma in general helps, scientists want to know when to use it – for the very sick or at the first sign of infection? And what is the right dose?
The survivors of COVID-19 have widely varying amounts of antibodies, which Ortigoza said is difficult to measure before the donated plasma is used.
She said another question is which of the many types of antibodies are the best to use.
Joyner notes that the extended access program was not intended to replace rigorous studies, but was originally designed to track 5,000 people and see if plasma was safe. Instead, the program skyrocketed.
‘There is probably reasonable, active evidence from our findings to really confirm historical lessons of plasma therapy that earlier use is better,’ he said.
There are now more than 5,314,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States with 168,458 deaths.
The news about the limited success of the treatment of blood plasma comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday for the first time suggested that people who recover from coronavirus may have some immunity to the virus.
However, the agency’s updated guidance suggests that this protection may not last more than three months.
“People who test positive for COVID-19 do not need to be quarantined or re-tested for up to three months, as long as they do not develop symptoms again,” says the CDC’s recently updated guide.
However, ‘people who develop symptoms within 3 months of their first COVID-19 attack may need to be re-tested if no other cause is identified for their symptoms.’
The update to the quarantine guidance was not announced and at the same time seems to suggest that recovery offers some protection, but for a limited time, and that reinfection is possible.
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