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To fight a new viral emerging disease you need three steps:
The first step is to use a repurposed drug as a treatment for the disease like the malaria drug or the HIV drugs that they are using to treat covid-19 patients and this is until a new drug or treatment is discovered to fight the virus which is the the second step. Or until a new vaccine is made to prevent the disease which is the final step. By this point we can prevent the infection and treat the patients and we can declare ourselves winner against this viral pandemic.
Experts believe that convalescent plasma is the best solution to full the gap that the health system is lacking for right now
That is because finding a vaccine can take at least a year from know if all phases of developing a vaccine goes well. Some scientists are not yet optimistic that a vaccine can be developed as quickly as possible because since SARS-COV-1 emerged in 2002, which is the same family as SARS-COV-2, no vaccine for it was developed for SARS-COV-1 all these years. The SARS-COV-1 shares 70 % of the DNA of SARS-COV-2, which might give us an indication that it is not easy to develop a vaccine for this type of viruses.
Application for convalescent plasma at the current time:
From the initial research that was published from China about the positive outcome from treatment of Covide-19 patients with convalescent plasma the FDA approved use of convalescent plasma on sever Covid-19 patients or patients who are highly at risk under investigation use.
The Myo clinic researchers alongside other collaborators recently announced that convalescent plasma is safe after treating 20,000 patients with convalescent plasma proved that the treatment is safe. The findings are reported in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
However, more research is needed to prove the effectiveness of convalescent plasma.
Kuwait in the 8th of April this year, along with other countries started collecting convalescent plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients by a medical team from Jaber Hospital and Kuwait Central Blood Bank. Dr Reem Alradwan Head of Kuwait Blood Services stated that the recovered patient from Covid-19 start to develop antibodies as a reaction to fight the disease. The collection of antibodies starts after the patient is recovered and have completed the 14 days home social distancing.
the antibodies in the plasma from recovered patients can stay in the Donors blood system for three weeks after that it starts to decline and that one donor can help treat 3 patients
What is convalescent plasma?
Plasma is the liquid part of the blood, and it yellowish in color, it is composed of 55% of the blood. It contains proteins and antibodies.
Convalescent plasma contains antibodies from a person who has recently recovered from disease and their plasma contain curtain antibodies that fight this specific disease. When treating a patient who is fighting this similar disease you give am a chance to survive by neutralizing the pathogen and prevent it from infecting cells. Treatment of convalescent plasma is considered (passive immunity) because you are providing the body temporarily with antibodies so they don't need to produce them on their own.
Convalescent plasma is not like vaccines which is (innate) immunity that help the body produce its own immunity by the immune system. Vaccines are considered a preventative measure and not a treatment because a body needs a month or longer to start producing its own immunity against the pathogen.
According to convalescent plasma it provides the body with antibodies immediately and can be used as a treatment or protection against the virus or pathogen for a period of time for those who are at high risk exposure to the diseases. For further information the FDA did not approve yet the use of convalescent plasma as a protection against Covid-19 and only allows the treatment for severe cases.
Collecting convalescent plasma can be either by whole blood donation or apheresis donation and it highly recommended to donate convalescent plasma by apheresis method. That's because you can extract convalescent plasma by the apheresis machine and the rest of the blood will go to the donor. The apheresis donation takes about 60 to 90 minutes to complete to complete 2 or 3 doses of convalescent plasma each dose help treat 1 patient.
The History of convalescent plasma :
The history of convalescent plasma started with the very first Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, which was awarded in 1901 to Emil Von Behring for his discovery of developing a cure for diphtheria, a fetal bacterial infection in children.
His treatment, known as diphtheria antitoxin, worked by injecting sick patients with antibodies taken from animals who had recovered from the disease.
The German Doctors method of antitoxin wasn't a vaccine but an early form of convalescent plasma treatment which is being adopted for treating emerging Covid-19 disease.
This treatment of choice was also adopted in 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. In addition this treatment was used worldwide to for various diseases and it was proven effective for most diseases with conflicting results. Examples of diseases that were treated with convalescent plasma is SARS in 2002, and MERS in 2014 which is caused from a virus of the same family as SARS-CoV-2.
It also was used to treat Swan flu H1NA, and Ebola and currently it is used to treat COVID-19 patients wildly in many countries.
How to to improve the effectiveness of convalescent plasma treatment :
Dr Joyner at Myo Clinc who is the head investigational use of convalescent plasma in USA is hoping to improve the results by testing donors who are carrying high antibody titration so that patients can benefit from the treatment.
What is the purpose of using Convalescent Plasma?
Convalescent plasma can be used firstly to reduce the treatment time required for recovery, Secondly to to reduce the severity of symptoms and give the patient a chance for survival.
Finally convalescent plasma can be used as a protective measure for high risk individuals who are susceptible for infection and can be protected temporarily from the virus like health worker.
In my opinion every country who is facing the disease must understand how to apply the use of convalescent plasma as a treatment. For example by tracking individuals who have recently recovered from COVID-19 and encourage them to donate because after a while the antibodies might decrease.
It is important to understand the role that blood services are holding to provide safe and reliable blood components as well as collecting convalescent plasma and it needs the support by the community to help educate the public of the importance of giving back and donating for the hope that they are carrying in their blood.
Convalescent plasma can give scientists the time to discover other treatment options and vaccine.
It was stated by the WHO after the Ebola epidemic in 2017 to treat any emerging epidemic pathogen with convalescent plasma if there is no treatment options available but within certain standards and regulations.