What Is Convalescent Plasma Therapy and How Does It Fight COVID-19?

Convalescent plasma therapy, an old-school weapon against deadly illnesses, gives coronavirus patients a dose of virus-fighting antibodies.

By Megan Schmidt
Jul 30, 2020 9:23 PMNov 3, 2020 4:48 PM
man donating blood coronavirus plasma - shutterstock
(Credit: Anna Fedorova_it/Shutterstock)

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COVID-19 will probably be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. A vaccine has yet to materialize. As the pandemic continues to take a crushing toll, doctors are resorting to a century-old treatment that has been helpful in managing previous pandemics: taking antibodies from those who have recovered and giving it to the sick. It’s known as convalescent plasma therapy, or “survivors’ blood.”

Plasma — the liquid component of blood — contains antibodies. Extracting plasma from someone that has “convalesced,” or recovered, from an illness might provide a much-needed boost to the immune system of someone grappling with coronavirus.

In the past, plasma therapy has been a weapon against the 1918 flu, polio, measles, rabies, hepatitis B and Ebola — with varying levels of success. More recently, it showed some promise in treating other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, particularly when given to a patient early in their illness.

There’s reason to be hopeful that plasma therapy can also help battle SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Preliminary studies have found that many patients who received plasma therapy improved. For instance, a trial of 31 severely ill patients from the University of Wisconsin-Madison improved enough to avoid the ICU or a ventilator after receiving plasma. Four patients still died, however.

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