The patients with COVID-19 who are in a serious or extremely serious state can be treated with antibodies from the plasma of persons who were cured of this disease. The treatment method has been regulated as of April 13.
Contacted by IPN for details, Svetlana Cebotari, head of the National Blood Transfusion Center, said the treatment with convalescent plasma is a measure to fortify the treatment of patients with serious and very serious forms of COVID-19.
Any person who develops an infectious disease, including COVID-19, has antibodies - a substance that the body produces in the blood to fight disease. The plasma of cured persons, being rich in such antibodies, can be used as a medicine for patients in a serious or extremely serious state.
The medical treatment, plus this plasma rich in antibodies, helps neutralize the replication of the virus in the body and to destroy it. The recovery is thus swifter, said Svetlana Cebotari.
A donation of plasma of about 600 ml is divided into three doses of 200 ml each that are given to three patients, by one dose a day.
The donors must meet a number of conditions. They must be aged between 18 and 60, be men and should not suffer from other diseases besides the COVID-19 from which they recovered. The women are not eligible as they have specific antibodies obtained as a result of natural immunization, by birth giving, pregnancy or sexual intercourses and these antibodies can lead to different post-transfusion reactions that affect the lungs.
The potential donor of convalescent plasma should wait for at least 14 days after the last symptom of disease and should have a negative lab test for the novel coronavirus. “We are waiting for the 14 days to pass. We hope those who recovered will make common cause and will respond to the call and we will be able to initiate the collection of plasma. We will wait for the first convalescent donors next weekend,” said Svetlana Cebotari.
She added that when being discharged, each treated man is informed that his plasma can be used as a remedy for those infected with COVID-19. They are asked to give their consent to be contacted by phone in two weeks so as to be reminded that they can be donors. The donors will come to the National Blood Transfusion Center in Chisinau or representatives of the Center will travel to collect plasma themselves.
As many as 143 persons with COVID-19 are in a serious state at the hospital and 12 of them were intubated.
