Although further testing is required, scientists believe plasma donated by patients who have recovered from the coronavirus could help those seriously ill from it (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-je) |
Beijing (AFP) - Chinese health officials Monday urged patients who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate blood so that plasma can be extracted to treat others who are critically ill.
Drugmakers
are racing to develop a vaccine and treatment for the epidemic, which has
killed 1,770 people and infected over 70,500 people across China.
Plasma from
patients who have recovered from a spell of pneumonia triggered by COVID-19
contains antibodies that can help reduce the virus load in critically ill
patients, an official from China's National Health Commission told a press
briefing Monday.
"I
would like to make a call to all cured patients to donate their plasma so that
they can bring hope to critically ill patients," said Guo Yanhong, who
heads the NHC's medical administration department.
Eleven
patients at a hospital in Wuhan -- the epicentre of the disease -- received
plasma infusions last week, said Sun Yanrong, of the Biological Center at the
Ministry of Science and Technology.
"One
patient (among them) has already been discharged, one is able to get off the
bed and walk and the others are all recovering," she said.
The call
comes days after China's state-owned medical products maker reported successful
results from its trial at Wuhan First People's Hospital.
China
National Biotec Group Co. said in a post on its official WeChat account that
severely ill patients receiving plasma infusions "improved within 24
hours".
The World
Health Organization said exploring the use of plasma as a treatment for the
novel coronavirus was "important", but cautioned it needed to be done
"with safety".
"It is
a very important area of discovery," head of WHO's emergencies programme
Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva, pointing out that plasma had proven
effective in saving lives when combatting a range of different diseases.
"It is
a very valid way to explore therapeutics, especially when we don't have
vaccines and we don't have specific anti-virals," he said.
His
colleague Sylvie Briand, who heads WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness
division, meanwhile cautioned that plasma-based treatments could be difficult
to scale up to reach large numbers of patients, and stressed the need to
carefully follow safety protocols.
"With
blood products you can also transmit other diseases, so the protocol ... is
very important," she told reporters.
Sun
stressed that "clinical studies have shown that infusing plasma (from
recovered patients) is safe and effective."
Blood
donors will undergo a test to ensure that they are not carrying the virus, said
Wang Guiqiang, chief physician at Peking University First Hospital.
"Only
plasma is taken, not all the blood," he said.
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