Plasma donations needed from those who have recovered from COVID-19
Broward Health is asking recovered COVID-19 patients to donate their blood plasma for an experimental treatment that could help save the lives of critically ill patients.
Officials believe the plasma contains antibodies that could help someone else fight off the infection. The scientific hunch, if proven true, could help people recover from the disease quicker and possibly lessen the infection’s severity while the world waits for a vaccine.
“It’s definitely another tool … in our effort to try and address those patients that are critically ill ... and we really hope that it proves to be something useful in the treatment of these patients,” said Dr. Joshua Lenchus, regional chief medical officer at Broward Health, a network of hospitals, urgent care centers and doctors’ offices in Broward.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR COVID-19 CONVALESCENT PLASMA THERAPY?
To be eligible for the treatment, patients must:
Be at least 18 years of age Have tested positive for COVID-19 in a FDA-approved laboratory test
Be hospitalized for severe or life-threatening COVID-19 complications. Hospitalized patients who are deemed to be at “high risk” of developing severe COVID-19 complications also qualify.
The patient or their healthcare proxy must consent to the treatment.
The hospital says it’s following the criteria of the Mayo Clinic’s FDA-authorized COVID-19 Expanded Access Convalescent Plasma Program. Broward Health recently gained approval to join the program and has used the convalescent plasma treatment on a “handful of patients,” said Lenchus.
But the treatment won’t work without recovered COVID-19 patients — the only eligible donors for the treatment.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez participated in a plasma transfusion earlier this month to help a critically ill COVID-19 patient at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, part of Baptist Health South Florida.The mayor was the first recovered COVID-19 patient in South Florida to participate in a COVID-19 convalescent plasma transfusion.
U.S. Rep Mario Diaz-Balart, the first member of Congress to fall ill with the disease, also announced earlier this month that he was now free of the disease and was applying to become a COVID-19 plasma donor with the American Red Cross, one of the many blood banks working with the Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 plasma program.
WHO CAN DONATE COVID-19 CONVALESCENT PLASMA?
One of the other local hospitals enrolled in the program is Memorial Healthcare System. The hospital joined the program earlier this month and is asking recovered COVID-19 patients to donate.
“We celebrate COVID-19 patients in our community who are recovering from this virus everyday and now we call upon them to help others who are suffering with the virus,” said Dr. Candi Sareli, head of research for Memorial Healthcare System in a statement. “The donation process is simple, but it is only for donors who meet the required screening criteria.”
The hospital says eligible plasma donors must meet all of the required screening criteria for blood donations and the additional FDA-approved criteria, which include:
Having documentation from an FDA-approved laboratory test that shows you tested postive for COVID-19.
A No longer being symptomatic at least 14 days prior to donation and having a document from an FDA-approved test that shows you have since tested negative for the disease, or are no longer symptomatic at least 28 days prior to donation.
For a full list of eligibility requirements, answers to frequently asked questions and to apply as a donor, visit https://www.oneblood.org /lp/covid-19-convalescent -plasma.stml.
WHAT IS COVID-19 CONVALESCENT PLASMA THERAPY?
Convalescent plasma therapy has previously been used during other viral outbreaks, including SARS and H1N1 influenza, and the “science behind it is sound,” said Lenchus.
Mayo Clinic, the lead institution in the program, says that initial data from studies using COVID-19 convalescent plasma to treat patients with severe or life-threatening complications from the disease have showed positive benefits.
However, the clinic also states there is not enough scientific research to demonstrate that COVID-19 convalescent plasma transfusions have provided “clinical” benefits in patients affected by the disease.
OneBlood, a blood bank that serves the hospitals in South Florida, says it is collecting convaslecent plasma donations seven days a week and is screening interested donors to make sure they qualify for the transfusion.
OneBlood says it will work with the hospitals to ensure the COVID-19 patient needing treatment is compatible with the donated plasma.
“Our message to people who have recovered from the coronavirus is that they are needed,” the blood bank said in a statement. “They could hold the potential key in helping people still fighting the virus recover and we encourage them to go to OneBlood.org and provide the necessary documentation to be a donor.”
Lenchus says it could take several weeks or months for the hospital to determine if the treatment was beneficial to its patients because the disease is so new and every patient is different. And just like any blood transfusion, there are risks. The COVID-19 patient’s body could have an allergic reaction to the plasma.
“In medicine we weigh the risk and benefits and the benefits of potential improvement in a patient that is critically ill — and we really don’t have anything else except for supportive care and routine medicine — compared to the risk of a potential allergic reaction after an FDA-approved screening process. Really, it came down on the potential benefit,” Lenchus said.
Researchers involved in the Mayo Clinic’s study will be recording and collecting data from participants to determine how effective the treatment was against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The disease has infected more than 886,200 people in the United States.
Florida has had more than 30,000 confirmed cases of the disease and more than 1,000 deaths.
As of Friday, 2,646 physicians and 3,266 patients at 1,886 sites were enrolled in the program. So far, 1,199 patients have completed the transfusion.
Those interested in learning more about the program can visit https://www.uscovid plasma.org/.