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The United Kingdom will try to use the blood of coronavirus survivors to treat sick hospital patients with the disease.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is asking people who have recovered from Covid-19 to donate their blood so they can evaluate the therapy in trials.
The hope is that the antibodies they have accumulated will help kill the virus in others.
The United States has already started a major project to study this, involving more than 1,500 hospitals.
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When a person has Covid-19, their immune system responds by creating antibodies that attack the virus.
Over time, these accumulate and can be found in the plasma, the liquid portion of the blood.
NHSBT now wants to collect plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to see if it can be given to people who are currently sick with the virus.
A statement from the organization said: “We anticipate that this will be used initially in trials as a possible treatment for Covid-19.
“If fully approved, the trials will investigate whether convalescent plasma transfusions could improve the recovery rate and survival chances of a Covid-19 patient.
“All clinical trials must follow a rigorous approval process to protect patients and ensure that robust results are generated. We are working closely with the government and all relevant agencies to advance the approval process as quickly as possible.”
What do I need to know about the coronavirus?
Are other groups doing this?
Various groups in the UK have been studying the use of blood plasma.
The University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff announced this week that it wanted to test the technology.
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Professor Sir Robert Lechler, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and CEO of King’s Health Partners, which includes King’s College London and three major London hospitals, also hopes to organize another small-scale trial.
He wants to use plasma for critically ill patients who have no other treatment options, while a larger national trial is underway.
He said: “I would be disappointed if we couldn’t see some patients receiving this form of therapy in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the national NHSBT trial will get going really fast.”
He said the UK had moved slowly to test the treatment.
“I think there are many aspects of this pandemic that we will remember and say, I wonder why we didn’t move a little faster. I think this could be one of those.”
What is the situation in the rest of the world?
Around the world, tests are now underway to analyze plasma use.
In just three weeks, scientists in the US USA They organized a project nationwide and so far about 600 patients have been treated.
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Professor Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic leads the work.
He said, “What we have learned in the first week of administration is that there have been no major safety signs, and administration of the product does not appear to be causing many unforeseen side effects.”
“There are anecdotal reports of improved oxygenation and other improvements in patients. They are certainly encouraging, but they should be rigorously evaluated.”
He said the therapy was “tough and smart.”
“There are many things we don’t understand about plasma. We are going to learn more about what is in plasma, the components, the levels of antibodies and other factors that may be present as the weeks go by.”
“But sometimes, as a doctor, you just have to try to shoot at goal when you have a shot.”
How has this approach helped in past pandemics?
Taking advantage of the blood of recovered patients is not a new idea in medicine. It was used more than 100 years ago during the Spanish flu epidemic, and more recently for Ebola and the Sars.
So far, only small studies have looked at its effectiveness, and there is a great deal of research that needs to be done to see how effective it will be against coronavirus.
But in the United States, they say there is no shortage of people who want to help.
Bruce Sachais, medical director of the New York Blood Center, said: “The people have been amazing. They keep coming out en masse.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of donors and we have already been able to collect more than 1,000 units. It is truly heartwarming to see that for people who have had the infection, to varying degrees, their main concern is’ how can I help others now?”
Scientists say that plasma will not be a magic bullet.
But while our options for treating the coronavirus are so limited, the hope is that it can help until a vaccine is found.
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