What happened?
On April 1, 2020, the Moscow Department of Health issued order No. 325 “On the implementation
For one course, patients will receive from 300 to 4.8 thousand. ml of such plasma - 20 ml / kg per day, in total - no more than 2 thousand ml per day. This is a lot, given that the total amount of blood in an adult's body reaches an average of up to 6 liters. However, if a smaller amount of plasma is transfused, then it may simply not be enough to fight the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Donors will be paid 1 for every 150 ml of plasma 1250 rubles, for 600 ml - 5 thousand rubles. Donors can become ill with a coronavirus infection without chronic diseases and contraindications. It is known that by April 20, only 60 people had surrendered plasma in Moscow. At the same time, on April 23, there were 33,940 cases of COVID-19 in the capital (this is about half of all patients in Russia - 62,773 people), and 2,448 people who were cured.
That is, plasma can cure a person? Is it effective?
No one knows until the end.
In the blood of people who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2,Antibodies appear, with the help of which the body fights the virus. Theoretically, donated plasma (blood devoid of all cells: both red blood cells and white blood cells) will help people with severe COVID-19 recover. Now there are several studies that show the effectiveness of this method, however, in many countries this type of treatment is considered experimental. Hi-Tech talked about other methods of treating COVID-19 - experimental and not so much - in a large material.
In this case, while randomized controlledThere are no trials of plasma COVID-19 treatment yet. In fact, only two clinical trials of such a treatment method have passed - both in China. In one study, plasma treated five patients with a severe form of COVID-19, who were also given mechanical ventilation (ALV) at the same time. Three days after plasma transfusion, 75% of people returned to normal temperature and the number of viruses in the nasopharynx decreased, and after 12 days their oxygen saturation improved. All patients survived and recovered.
The second experience shows that 10 people received 200 ml of donated plasma (20 times less than they intend to transfer in Russia), after a few days they felt better, and after 7 days they recovered.
However, this data does not allow relevantto say that patients were cured precisely thanks to the use of plasma. There were too few people in the experimental groups, and there were no comparison groups — patients with a similar condition who did not receive plasma transfusion. In addition, all patients, in addition to plasma, were treated with other drugs, so it is impossible to say exactly which method affected people.
In addition, the emergence of such studies nowquite unlikely, because you need to conduct many experiments and measurements on patients, including checking the level of their antibodies in the blood and the number of viruses, whereas in the current conditions it is almost impossible to do. It is now known that only one such study is planned - in the UK. In the future, these data may greatly affect the possibility of treating coronavirus with plasma.
Then why treat with plasma?
Plasma treatment has been used effectively inthe time of previous major epidemics and pandemics, especially associated with coronavirus - SARS, which was provoked by SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus in 2003, H1N1 swine flu in 2009, and MERS-CoV coronavirus acute respiratory syndrome in 2012.
It is well known that plasma transfusion withantibodies reduced mortality in patients with severe SARS-CoV-1, and in the treatment of swine flu, this method reduced mortality by 35%. There is practically no data on the use of donor plasma with antibodies in the treatment of MERS-CoV.
However, as with COVID-19, these data are not enough to make it clear that donor plasma with antibodies treats these diseases.
But it’ll not get any worse?
Hardly. In previous epidemics, this method of treatment did not cause serious complications and side effects. True, there is a small risk that the use of plasma with foreign antibodies can weaken a person’s own immunity or that a person is ill with another strain of coronavirus and acquired antibodies simply will not help in the fight against it.
Clear. How do I donate plasma to treat coronavirus infection?
Blood can be donated not only to fight COVID-19; thousands of people need urgent donor assistance every day, especially blood and plasma.
To donate plasma for the treatment of COVID-19,it is necessary to recover from mild or moderate coronavirus infection, do not get HIV or hepatitis. Plasma will be taken only in people over 18, but under 55 years old, with a body weight of more than 50 kg. In addition, prior to delivery, it is necessary to take biochemical and general blood tests, in which the number of leukocytes, red blood cells and platelets, as well as the hemoglobin content in the blood, are measured.
To donate plasma, you must call the hotline at 8 (495) 870-45-16. The line is open every day from 9:00 to 19:00.