Antibodies against COVID-19: Russians who have been ill with coronavirus are called on to donate blood plasma

In Russia, the first transfusions of patients with COVID-19 patients with blood plasma of people who had coped with coronavirus infection were carried out in Moscow in early April - the clinical committee for combating coronavirus infection approved the technology for use.

This method is called passive immunotherapy. In the plasma of a sick person, antibodies contain antibodies that are able to effectively fight coronavirus. They are necessary for the patient, whose body alone can not cope with the infection. As a rule, such transfusions are used to help patients who are in serious condition. 

The Moscow Department of Health notes that plasma obtained from one donor may be enough to treat one to three people.

Moskvich Dmitry was ill with a coronavirus, but, fortunately, he did not need hospitalization.

“The first symptoms appeared on March 27, a week later I called a doctor from the clinic to her house, she took tests from me,” Dmitry says. - I think that I got infected somewhere in the transport - before the onset of symptoms, I traveled a lot by metro and taxi. I was not hospitalized because it was not necessary, but a couple of times it seemed to me that if it got any worse, I would go to the hospital: there was a strong shortness of breath, it was difficult to breathe, I could breathe in for a quarter, and then I started to cough hard ".

The test confirmed that Dmitry has a coronavirus. All this time he was treated at home with antibiotics. After tests confirmed that the man coped with coronavirus, he decided to become a donor.

“I donated plasma on May 4 at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute. The whole procedure, including a preliminary survey, took about two hours. The necessary tests were taken from me on the spot, ”says Dmitry.

According to him, after the procedure, he did not feel either weakness or dizziness: “When I donated blood as a donor, I felt worse than after donating plasma.”

The fact is that after the plasma is taken, the cellular components of his blood are transfused back to the donor, so this procedure has less effect on the body. After the procedure, Dmitry was also paid 5 thousand rubles as a stimulating payment as a plasma donor.

“Need more time.”

This is not the first time a plasma transfusion treatment has been used in Russia and the world - this therapy was used to treat SARS caused by SARS coronavirus in 2003 and Ebola fever in 2014.

Plasma transfusions of people who have had coronavirus are used in China and the USA, however, treatment is still considered experimental. As Tatyana Gaponova, the chief freelance transfusiologist of the Ministry of Health, explains, it cannot be argued that such a technique for treating coronavirus is the most effective. In this case, it is necessary to continue the collection of plasma from donors and its transfusion to patients.

“It takes more time to accumulate enough information, analyze it and come to scientific conclusions. Mostly plasma is transfused to save patients with severe coronavirus infection. However, it is impossible to completely replace other treatments with this technique, for example, antibiotic therapy, ”the specialist said in an interview with RT.

A plasma donor can be a person who has had COVID-19, aged 18 to 55 years without chronic diseases.

“At the same time, in the blood of such a person there should be enough specific antibodies that are able to fight coronavirus. In addition, he should not have other infections and toxic effects from antibiotic treatment, ”said Tatyana Gaponova.

Now this treatment method in the capital is used at the N.V. Scientific Research Institute of Emergency Medicine Sklifosovsky and City Clinical Hospital No. 52.

According to Gaponova, the question of in what order the plasma will be transferred to medical facilities, including private clinics where patients with coronavirus are being treated, has not yet been resolved.

Over the past day, 588 patients with coronavirus have recovered in Moscow, and the total number of people treated in Moscow has reached 8458. The city authorities are calling on Muscovites who have such an opportunity to become a plasma donor. All information can be found by phone: +7 (495) 870-45-16 (from 09:00 to 19:00).