COVID-19 will probably be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. A vaccine has yet to materialize. As the pandemic continues to take a crushing toll, doctors are resorting to a century-old treatment that has been helpful in managing previous pandemics: taking antibodies from those who have recovered and giving it to the sick. It’s known as convalescent plasma therapy, or “survivors’ blood.”
Plasma — the liquid component of blood — contains antibodies. Extracting plasma from someone that has “convalesced,” or recovered, from an illness might provide a much-needed boost to the immune system of someone grappling with coronavirus.
In the past, plasma therapy has been a weapon against the 1918 flu, polio, measles, rabies, hepatitis B and Ebola — with varying levels of success. More recently, it showed some promise in treating other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, particularly when given to a patient early in their illness.
There’s reason to be hopeful that plasma therapy can also help battle SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Preliminary studies have found that many patients who received plasma therapy improved. For instance, a trial of 31 severely ill patients from the University of Wisconsin-Madison improved enough to avoid the ICU or a ventilator after receiving plasma. Four patients still died, however.
