Utility of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 treatment

Abstract

The novel coronavirus identified and designated as SARS-CoV-2 has brought unprecedented suffering to people across the globe. There is yet neither an effective therapeutic substance nor a vaccine to treat the disease. Intensive research is being carried out globally to combat the menace. The road to success is miles away as effective drugs and vaccines (when available) are to be produced in adequate quantities and supplied at affordable prices to contain the disease. The observation that deployment of already-known technique of using convalescent plasma in the treatment of microbial diseases has yielded encouraging results in treating several deadly diseases, encourage the use of convalescent plasma collected from consented donors recently recovered from COVID-19 by plasmapheresis and using those for treating critically ill patients. The upgraded facilities for such purposes need to be in place along with the regulatory requirements for ensuring donor safety and judicious entitlement of convalescent plasma in patient care.

Keywords

• convalescent plasma
• sars-co v
• sars-cov-2