Blood Of Recovered COVID-19 Patients Shows Little Benefit As Treatment

By Reuters
Posted on 10/22/20 | News Source: JPost

Using blood of recovered COVID-19 patients - or so-called convalescent plasma - as a potential treatment is of little benefit in helping hospitalised patients fight off the infection, according to results of a clinical trial in India.

Published in the BMJ British Medical Journal on Friday, the results show that convalescent plasma, which delivers antibodies from COVID-19 survivors to infected people, failed to reduce death rates or halt progression to severe disease.

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The findings, from a study of more than 400 hospitalised COVID-19 patients, are a setback for a treatment that U.S. President Donald Trump touted in August as an "historic breakthrough". The United States and India have authorised convalescent plasma for emergency use.

Other countries, including Britain, are collecting donated plasma so that it could be widely rolled out if shown to be effective.
"The ... trial was able to show a small effect on the rate at which patients were able rid themselves of the virus, but this was not enough to improve their recovery from the disease," said Simon Clarke, an expert cellular microbiology at the University of Reading.

"In simple terms, there were no clinical benefits to the patients." Read more at JPost