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Convalescent plasma has no clinical benefit for COVID-19 patients, according to a new study.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, evaluated 464 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in India between April and July.
They were divided into two groups: one received two convalescent plasma transfusions 24 hours apart and best standard care. The other group received only the best standard of care.
Convalescent plasma treatment infuses people who are suffering with blood plasma from someone who has already recovered in the hope that it will help the new patient fight the disease.
After seven days, the group that received the plasma showed improvement in symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue, leading to higher rates of “negative conversion,” a sign that the antibodies are neutralizing the virus.
But it did not reduce the number of deaths or the progression to severe disease in 28 days, and the study said it showed “no net clinical benefit to patients.”
Ian Jones, professor of virology, also at the University of Reading, said: “The low yield of convalescent plasma in this trial is disappointing but not entirely surprising.
“We still do not have enough early stage disease treatments to prevent severe disease and until this becomes an option, avoiding infection with the virus remains the key message.”
Jones added that plasma is more likely to be effective if given to a patient shortly after contracting the virus and that future trials should focus on this.
University of Reading cell microbiology expert Simon Clarke said: “The … trial was able to show a small effect on the speed at which patients were able to shed the virus, but this was not enough to improve their recovery from the illness.
“In simple terms, there were no clinical benefits for patients.”
The study’s findings will be bad news for the US and India, which have licensed convalescent plasma for emergency use.
In early October it was reported that around 220 patients in the UK were treated in September as part of the plasma clinical trials, which began in May.
Also in October, a Canadian study revealed that COVID-19 antibodies in blood plasma donations seems to fall in months.
