Mandaue builds pool of convalescent plasma donors

THE Mandaue City Government is building a database of patients who have recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to facilitate identification of possible donors for the convalescent plasma therapy and hybrid therapeutic plasma exchange.

These are experimental treatments being administered to severely or critically ill Covid-19 patients using convalescent plasma, or blood plasma from a person who has recovered from Covid-19.

John Eddu Ibañez, executive secretary of Mayor Jonas Cortes, said they will send the database containing information about the possible donors to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center Blood Bank for proper disposition.

Mandaue City Councilor Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, chairperson of the committee on health, agreed on the need to build a pool of possible plasma donors among recovered patients.

However, she noticed that the database does not specify the blood type of the patients which is important in identifying the donors.

Ruiz was confident that such information will be available once a person donates convalescent plasma.

Ibañez, in a separate interview, said they will include the blood type in their data collection efforts.

Convalescent plasma therapy is the transfusion of convalescent plasma into a Covid-19 patient while hybrid therapeutic plasma exchange is the removal of a patient’s plasma through and replacement with convalescent plasma.

The Cebu Doctor’s University Hospital (CDUH) earlier said a patient recovered from Covid-19 after undergoing the two treatments.

Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III had downplayed the efficacy of these treatments.

He said it was premature to make any conclusion about the two procedures. /