On March 13th, a John Hopkins University infectious disease specialist and an Albert Einstein College of Medicine member published a paper claiming the most effective treatment for the COVID-19 lies in the blood plasma of the people who have fully recovered from the disease. According to the researchers, the antibody strategy is effective in other infections. They also claim the tools needed to collect and administer plasma already exists. 

Their paper influenced the medical community to conduct experimental therapies in hundreds of U.S. hospitals. Less than three months later, more than 16,000 patients have received plasma from coronavirus survivors. 

History of Plasma Treatments

The blood from recovered patients has long since been used to treat patients since the 1918 Spanish Flu, which infected more than 500 million worldwide. Studies from 1918 pandemic claim transfusion of plasma from the patients who have recovered from the flu effectively reduced the mortality in patients with influenza and severe complications. Plasma treatments have also been used to treat other epidemics and infections such as measles, severe acute respiratory syndromes, and Argentine hemorrhagic fever. Researchers injected convalescent plasma to 188 patients who suffered from the rodent-borne fever in the 1970s. Only 1 percent of plasma recipients died of the disease, while 16.5 percent from the control group succumbed to the hemorrhagic fever. 

However, the plasma treatment showed no benefits in 84 patients infected with Ebola in Guinea in 2015. The therapy also carried risks in transmitting blood-borne pathogens. The plasma treatment can also cause acute lung injury and circulatory overload, which can lead to difficulty breathing and death. 

Effectivity

In January, doctors and researchers in China have begun experimenting convalescent plasma therapy in COVID-19 patients. The results, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reported that the conditions improved for all ten plasma recipients. Researchers at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York compared 39 COVID-19 patients who received plasma transfusions with other patients who did not receive the therapy. According to the published reports, the mortality rates were 12.8 percent in the plasma group and 24.4 percent in the control group. The patients who received plasma treatments also an improved survival rate compared to controlled patients. 

While the data showed promise, experts believe more rigorous clinical trials are needed. The researchers at Mount Sinai are already creating plans to conduct a study involving 275 treated patients. Other similar trials are also underway in Europe and parts of the United States. 

Complications

Researchers have also started studying the therapy's safety. The data collected show complications seem to be rare. A U.S. paper compiled a report on 5000 patients and found 36 severe events, including lung injury and rejection. The adverse events may have been results of the disease, the paper says. If the treatment is shown to work, the medical community would also face problems meeting the demand. One plasma donation could only be enough for one or two patients. The donor's blood type would also need to match the recipient's. 

Many research institutions and blood banks have collaborated with Microsoft to launch a campaign called The Fight Is In Us. The campaign aims to get tens of thousands of recovered COVID-19 patients to donate blood plasma. 

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