Covid-19: Researchers recommend recovered coronavirus patient’s blood for treatment
As part of a newly approved federal trial, researchers at the health care network of the Hackensack hospital, New Jersey, are preparing to infuse patients fighting for life with antibody-rich blood plasma donated on Wednesday by a neonatal doctor who was infected with the corona virus and recovered.
The hope is that the plasma will boost patients’ immune systems and help them combat the virus before their lungs are destroyed, the New York Times reports.
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The first infusion of plasma, from blood donated by the doctor, Benjamin C. Planer, was scheduled to start by Saturday, Dr. Donato said.
In mid-March, Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey announced the first coronavirus-linked death in the Northeast.
Since then, there have been more than 16,000 virus-related deaths in the United States, and the toll grows by the hour.
But the health care network that runs the Hackensack hospital now has its eye on reaching another, more hopeful, milestone: finding a treatment for the disease caused by the virus.
The idea would be to try to prevent them from getting worse,” said Dr. Michele Donato, the chief of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy at John Theurer Cancer Center, part of Hackensack University Medical Center.
The New York Times reports that Hackensack’s study is expected to expand as more volunteers who have been infected with the virus meet a crucial threshold: Candidates must be healthy for at least 14 days and free of all traces of the virus. Of more than 3,000 people who have offered to be donors, only 38 have met the initial screening criteria.
