Has plasma been working to treat Covid patients?
I see the Frum organizations are still trying to get people to donate. They’re having locations in lkwd and in the Catskills this week, I’m just curious if it’s actually working because I haven’t heard much about it.
It's still considered an experimental treatment, while researchers analyze how much it might help. The earliest use gave it to patients who were in pretty bad shape, as a last-ditch effort to save them, and in those cases, it doesn't seem to have helped.
Subsequently, it's being used in earlier stages of disease, within a few days of diagnosis, and is showing more positive results. In Mount Sinai's first small study in May, a smaller percent of patients treated with plasma got sicker, a smaller percent died. So it wasn't a magic bullet, but it was helpful.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/health/coronarvirus-convalescent-serum.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=ArticleYesterday, WSJ described an oral report (not yet peer reviewed) that showed that those given a higher dose of plasma did better than those given a lower dose: "Patients who at three days or less after diagnosis received plasma containing high levels of antibodies against the coronavirus had a mortality rate of 6.6% at seven days after the transfusion. That compared with a mortality rate of 13.3% for patients who got plasma with low levels of antibodies at four days or more after diagnosis. That indicates reduced mortality of about 50%, the researchers said."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/convalescent-plasma-reduced-death-rate-among-covid-19-patients-study-data-signals-11596594390But even there, the mortality rate was reduced to 36% by 30 days after transfusion.
So it seems to be an effective treatment in some cases, and the researchers are trying to analyze which patients are most likely to be helped by it.