Govt begins study on plasma therapy for Covid-19 patients

AGOVERNMENT- funded study on the use of convalescent blood plasma as one of the modes of therapy against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has OFfiCIALLY STARTED, THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (DOST) SAID.

“[ I announce] the start of a study on convalescent plasma transfusion,” Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said in a video aired over DosTV Facebook page, adding that they allotted P4.99 million for the 12-month study that started last July 1.

Conducted by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development ( PCHRD),

together with the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), the project aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the use of blood plasma as an “adjunctive” or supportive therapy to prevent the progression of the coronavirus disease.

The project also aims to boost the use of the therapy not only for Covid-19 but also for other infections.

The therapy works by taking blood plasma from recovered patients, which contains neutralizing antibodies and use this on a patient with severe or critical Covid-19 infection.

“Our DoST-PCHRD is supporting the study being done by [UP-] PGH to determine whether convalescent plasma transfusion may be beneficial in the treatment of Covid-19,” de la Peña said.

The UP-PGH team started the call for blood donations from Covid-19 survivors last April.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, a Covid- 19 survivor and blood donor, took it a step further by launching plasmangpagasa. com where donors can register and select their preferred hospital for the collection of their blood plasma.

To qualify, an individual must have fully recovered from Covid19 for at least two weeks and has tested negative for the disease, is eligible to donate blood and his diagnosis was documented by a laboratory test, said Angara who tapped Bacolod City-based web developer Talking Myna for the project.

Angara assured donors that the personal information they will provide in registering would be kept private and used only by the collecting hospital for the purpose of matching a patient for blood plasma therapy.

At present, plasmangpagasa. com has partnered with the PGH,

Lung Center of the Philippines and the St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Angara, who tested positive for Covid-19 last March 26, recovered from the disease and donated his blood plasma on April 13. Last Thursday, he once again donated blood plasma as his way of giving back to the medical community who helped him recover from the disease.

The DoST, with the Department of Health (DoH), is currently conducting trials for the use of melatonin, virgin coconut oil and the

tawa-tawa plant as other possible therapies for Covid-19.

De la Peña also announced that the department would resume the mass distribution of the second version or second generation GenAmplify Covid- 19 test kits after these were validated by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and DoST’s committee of laboratory experts.

The kits were developed by Marikina City-based health technology startup Manila HealthTek of Dr. Raul Destura.

“With the endorsement from the RITM of the second version of the GenAmplify test kits, the Food and Drug Administration or FDA has issued a certification of validity and reliability. So the distribution of the new test kits under this project will continue,” de la Peña said.

Last May, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said these test kits were recalled over “very minor” defects.