Trump urges people who have recovered from covid-19 to donate blood plasma

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Thu, 2020-07-30 20:36 — mike kraft

Trump urges people who have recovered from covid-19 to donate blood plasma Blood plasma from people who have successfully recovered from coronavirus infection has been widely used in the United States, even though researchers are still gathering evidence to definitively show it works. Carolyn Y. Johnson Washington Post

President Trump issued a national call to action Thursday, exhorting people who have recovered from covid-19 to donate blood plasma to help others fight the disease and boost the nation’s supply.

“If you’ve had the virus, if you donate, it would be a terrific thing,” Trump said on a visit to the American Red Cross headquarters. “We really need donations of the plasma. To those that have had the virus, you’ve gotten through it. And I guess that means you have something very special there."

The call for donors is based on a simple, but powerful fact about the immune system. People who recover from a coronavirus infection typically have virus-blocking antibodies circulating in their blood in the weeks after they recover. Those antibodies can be harvested in plasma donations and transfused to the next people who get sick, helping boost their immune systems. In contrast, developing treatments for a new virus is an uncertain and time-consuming process.

Blood plasma from people who have successfully recovered from coronavirus infection has been widely used in the United States, even though researchers are still gathering evidence to definitively show it works. About 50,000 people have been transfused with the treatment, called convalescent plasma, under an expanded access program sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration....

Antibody tests that detect whether people have coronavirus-fighting antibodies will be included for free to all blood donors.

Convalescent plasma is an approach that has been used against measles, respiratory diseases and, more recently, Ebola. But the historical data showing that it works has been relatively mixed, with some evidence suggesting strongly that it works and other studies showing it has little effect.

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