- Plasma from people who have had COVID-19 could save the lives of others.
- Plasma extracted from blood can be used and put into someone else.
- This will help their system develop the antibodies to more quickly defeat Covid-19.
- The serum is separated and screened for virus-neutralizing antibodies.
- CPT has been used to treat people with viruses from Ebola to polio and flu.
According to an article published in Fox SanAntonio and authored by Sharyl Attkisson, Miami Mayor Frances Suarez became Florida’s first donor for “convalescent plasma therapy,” an FDA approved experimental treatment.
Plasma can cure people with COVID-19
Researchers say plasma from people who have had COVID-19 could save the lives of others.
“The simplest way for me to explain it is that when the body defeats a virus, it creates antibodies in your bloodstream,” says Suarez. “Plasma extracted from that blood can be used and put into someone else to help their system develop the antibodies to more quickly defeat Covid-19, particularly those that are seriously sick.”
What is convalescent plasma therapy?
Plasma therapy uses antibodies found in the blood of people who have recovered from infection (or convalesced), to treat patients who are infected.
In this therapy, blood is drawn from a person who has recovered from the disease, and the serum is separated and screened for virus-neutralizing antibodies.
When attacked by a pathogen, our immune systems produce antibodies and in this therapy, these antibodies from recovered patients are used to treat other sick people.
Convalescent plasma therapy has been used for a long time to treat people ill with viruses from Ebola to polio and flu. Suarez says the patient he donated to was a 70-year-old man on a respirator in a Coral Gables. The man’s condition improved, but he then died of a stroke.
Survivors urged to donate plasma
But Suarez is using the experience to publicize the need for more coronavirus survivors to donate plasma for experimental use in Covid-19 patients.
“I’m one of the thousands of Covid-19 survivors that can donate their plasma, the antibodies in their plasma to help so many more people who are potentially feeling it and experiencing it at much worse symptoms than I did,” Suarez tell me. “And so I feel morally obligated and I think all those people should also feel obligated to go out. And once they beat it in their own bodies, help others do likewise.“
Did you subscribe to our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: FoxSanAntonio
