Britain is launching experiments to determine whether blood plasma, obtained from donors cured of Covid-19, could be an effective treatment for patients who are in serious condition with this disease.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health said that as many as 5,000 patients, who are in a serious condition, can be treated with blood plasma every week as part of a new method to treat the virus.
The plasma, which is taken from Covid-19 patients, can be transferred to patients who struggle to produce antibodies against the virus inside their bodies.
The Ministry of Health said that the so-called recovery stage plasma was used as an effective treatment during the outbreak of SARS, between 2002 and 2004.
She added that, in parallel with the general randomized clinical trial, the government is promoting the general plasma collection program, so that treatment can be widely circulated if proven effective.
Plasma collection will be increased during April and May, to deliver up to 10,000 units of plasma to the public health apparatus per week, enough to treat 5,000 patients with "Covid-19" per week.
"I hope this treatment will be a major milestone in our war against this disease," said Health Minister Matt Hancock.
"The UK is leading the world's largest experiments to find a covid-19 treatment, with more than 7,000 people participating so far in testing a series of medications. We hope to add plasma in the recovery phase to this list," said Deputy Chief Physician Jonathan Van-Tam. soon".
He added that «the plasma in the recovery phase was used as an effective treatment for the infection that appeared in the past, and this step forward confirms our science-backed method to fight this virus. The blood is drawn from the arm and distributed through a device that separates the plasma, then returns it back to the donor, and this process takes about 45 minutes.