Data On Treatment Of COVID-19 With Blood Plasma Recognized As Low Quality

Data on treatment of COVID-19 with blood plasma recognized as low quality

Such conclusions were made by scientists of the Cochrane Collaboration during a rapid survey of data on the use of plasma in different countries.

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Comments on this topic are posted on the Cochrane Library website a few days after the review - the latter will be updated monthly as new data becomes available.

To compile a review, the researchers analyzed 8 completed studies on the effectiveness of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients without any restrictions on age, ethnicity, sex, or disease severity. Apart from the fact that only 32 cases were included in the studies, they were not randomized and controlled. None of them compared the condition of patients who received convalescent plasma transfusion with people who did not receive it. Another weakness in all studies was the lack of data on how effective plasma treatment is compared to other methods. As a result, the authors of the review assessed the reliability of the data obtained as “very low”.

Scientists stressed that they will regularly review all new studies and will definitely report the emergence of more encouraging data. According to them, 47 such studies are currently underway in the world, of which 22 are randomized and controlled.

The purpose of a plasma transfusion is to transfer the antibodies from the blood of a recovered person to a patient in the acute phase of the disease. Scientists call this method "passive antibody therapy" because the person receives external antibodies, and does not generate an immune response on their own, as after vaccination.

Note that plasma transfusions have been used with varying success in the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong and during the Ebola epidemic in Africa. The spread of this method is insisted, in particular, by Johns Hopkins University immunologist Arturo Casadevall.