Area hospitals to join experimental program
Study would try plasma treatment for coronavirus patients
HAMPTON ROADS — Blood plasma taken from recovered coronavirus patients could be used as an experimental treatment in some of the sickest people suffering from the respiratory illness in Hampton Roads.
Bon Secours Mercy Health said Tuesday it has joined a national study led by the Mayo Clinic that involves using plasma as a therapy for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The hospital system, which runs DePaul, Maryview, Harbor View and Mary Immaculate medical centers, said it has established a network of blood suppliers that will provide the plasma.
Bon Secours is the first hospital system in the region to announce its participation in the program, but others might not be far behind. Riverside Health and Sentara Healthcare say they've enrolled in the study, though spokesmen from each company didn't have timelines for when they might begin using the treatment.
“We are studying early data coming out of the trial to decide on next steps,” said Dale Gauding, a Sentara spokesman.
A Chesapeake Regional Medical Center spokeswoman said the hospital is evaluating whether to participate.
Bringing the protocol into hospitals could make a difference in the fight against the pandemic. The virus, previously unknown in humans up until December, has no existing vaccines or cures. And though most people who contract it will recover without medical intervention, thousands of people throughout the country have died from the disease in a matter of weeks.
As of Tuesday, public health officials said 324 Virginians had died. Over 400 patients are currently in intensive care, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, and more than half of those patients are on ventilators.
Whether plasma will be a game-changer in saving lives remains to be seen.
“I think it's very early, from a clinical standpoint,” said Dr. Anhtai Nguyen, chief clinical officer for Bon Secours Hampton Roads. “But we're very optimistic.”
People who have fully recovered from the disease have antibodies in their plasma that can attack the virus. Through this technique, plasma would be given to sick patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections.
One plasma donation has the potential to help up to four patients with the coronavirus, Bon Secours said in its announcement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved using the protocol in an “expanded access program,” which allowed hospitals to implement the potential therapy quicker than if it had gone through the traditional research path. Expanded access is normally used for patients with life-threatening diseases who aren't eligible for clinical trials and whose illnesses have no other treatments.
Bon Secours said plasma from recovered patients has been used as a treatment for other diseases throughout history, such as polio, measles, hepatitis B, influenza and Ebola. It was studied in outbreaks of other recent respiratory infections, including the 2003 SARS epidemic, the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the 2012 MERS epidemic.
Plasma donations will be accepted from people who have had COVID-19 and haven't had symptoms for at least 28 days. They can give blood at their local American Red Cross or use participating blood donation centers found on Bon Secours' website.
But the overall lack of coronavirus testing may pose significant challenges for one of the requirements to qualify as a donor. The Red Cross wants recovered people to provide verification of a diagnosis, and though some people may suspect they had it, they lack documentation to prove it.
A Virginia Beach couple, the first known coronavirus cases in Hampton Roads, say they have been inquiring about being plasma donors since April 6. The husband and wife, who The Virginian-Pilot is not naming because of their fear of community alienation, were informed by state public health officials March 10 that they had presumptive positive test results and have since recovered from the illness.
But when they attempted to fill out forms for the Red Cross, they hit a snag. The only documents they had to prove their diagnoses were release papers from the health department. The wife emailed them a few days ago, the husband said, but they haven't heard anything back.
“I really wondered why no one wanted it,” he said.
Another possible complication could be timing. Many people didn't start getting tested and diagnosed until mid-March. Factoring in the duration of the illness and 28-day symptom-free period, a lot of COVID-19 survivors in Virginia might not qualify to donate for a few more weeks.
Health officials say the plasma treatment should not be confused with antibody testing, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to use to determine whether someone previously had the virus. That test, which has not been widely rolled out, could determine how much of the population has been exposed to the virus.
For more information on donating plasma for coronavirus patients, visit www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/ plasma-donations-from-recovered-covid-19-patients.html.