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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFirst COVID-19 critically ill patient at UMass Memorial treated with plasma showing significant
improvement.
https://www.boston25news.com/news/health/first-covid-19-critically-ill-patient-umass-memorial-treated-with-plasma-showing-significant-improvement/HJHALVG5RVEGDG6AV6CPYINCEA/
"The idea is to take plasma from a healthy donor who recovered from COVID-19 and inject it in a patient so the donors antibodies can help the patient fight off the disease.
After hours of transfusion, doctors noticed the patient had improved dramatically and is now starting to wean off the ventilator. That same patient needed near maximal settings on the ventilator to fully oxygenate him prior to the transfusion."
sheshe2
(86,941 posts)uponit7771
(91,355 posts)htuttle
(23,738 posts)I haven't read that anyone is actually sure that there is any immunity, and if so, how long it might last.
This is a good sign, and I've read other accounts of convalescent plasma working at other locations.
gristy
(10,714 posts)Historically, with other human coronavirusesthe ones that nobody talks about because they basically only cause the common coldexperts have observed limited immunity after an infection. Once you get one of those viruses, says Graham, you typically gain immunity for a couple of years.
Its not yet clear which camp COVID-19 falls into. Its too early to tell what kind of immune response people are amounting to this virus and if theyre able to produce the proper kinds of antibodies that would neutralize a subsequent infection, Graham says.
luvtheGWN
(1,343 posts)mutates every year to become a new virus, so no immunity is possible.
The concern will be if Covid-19 mutates (as it probably will and perhaps already has) so the immunity possibilities are basically moot.
OTOH, plasma injections from recovered patients offer the chance to prevent death, so that's a good thing (even if certain Texan politicians think there are better things than living......)
My background is not science so feel free to correct me if I'm off-base on this.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,493 posts)That would explain why for the most part, as we get older, we get fewer and fewer colds, because we are now immune to a whole bunch of them.
I'm 71. I think I last had a cold perhaps three years ago. And one about six years earlier.
If cold viruses simply mutated every year, we'd all tend to get the same number of colds all the time. But in reality, kids get LOTS of colds, often one a month in their early years. The colds start slowing down and continue to slow down in adulthood. I'd guess that in the past twenty years I've had no more than six colds.
tblue37
(66,035 posts)Last edited Wed Apr 22, 2020, 11:48 AM - Edit history (1)
get that same one again.
(Rhinoviruses cause many colds.)
PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,493 posts)I thought I'd read once that there were about 400 different cold viruses. Maybe there's 200 rhinoviruses that cause colds, and another 200 coronaviruses that also cause colds.
I'm 71. Makes sense that by now I've been exposed to almost all of them by now, and why I go years without catching one.
tblue37
(66,035 posts)you picked up on the fact I meant rhinoviruses because it wasn't changed in the message box.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,493 posts)that caused me to read retrovirus as rhinovirus!
grantcart
(53,061 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,303 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Always end up wondering what happened to the well-known people who tested positive.
Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)Xipe Totec
(44,036 posts)BigmanPigman
(52,147 posts)I ask because I heard Chris Cuomo say that he wants to have antibodies so he can donate plasma to save four more people. Why "four"?
Laurelin
(629 posts)I assume you are limited because there's a limit to how much blood you can lose before you get sick or die yourself. So they take an amount that's safe for you, then divide that into portions that have enough antibodies to help someone else. Thar would limit the amount.
But I'm not a doctor.
mopinko
(71,562 posts)esp since it's just plasma donation, you can give again sooner.
BigmanPigman
(52,147 posts)ihaveaquestion
(3,078 posts)To identify the pool of plasma donors for treatment until a vaccine is found.
struggle4progress
(119,840 posts)crickets
(26,146 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)For bacterial infections it was shelved. Unlike the trump pushed mumbo jumbo, this has potential.
BComplex
(8,980 posts)In fact, he used it to treat all kinds of things, and he was so successful, people came from all around. He seemed to know what things to use it for, and he had figured out how to use it. I'm no scientist, so I don't know what it all meant, but he was a believer, and so were his patients.
MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)Interesting link below on mobilizing tech to locate likely COVID19 who have recovered to get plasma donations. PLASMA BOT!
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21226967/microsoft-plasmabot-recovered-coronavirus-patients-antibodies-blood
Ligyron
(7,835 posts)Once again those eggheaded, smarty pants science type people save will save the day for their deniers.
Lonestarblue
(11,531 posts)He doesnt want the real number of people infected to come out. And if there are not enough supplies to test people, he can insist on reopening the economy with no one knowing how many people have Covid-19. What a disgusting human being.
Ligyron
(7,835 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,493 posts)more or less everyone hospitalized with this?
murpheeslaw
(111 posts)Is their bodys initial insufficient response, then helped along with the antibodies from donated plasma then strong enough (concentrated?) to donate themselves?
Does everyone who gets sick make antibodies even if they needed the donated ones to recover?
Do the antibodies from everyone who recovers look the same? Do different people develop different shaped antibodies that jam up different stages of the virus cycle?
coti
(4,625 posts)raccoon
(31,409 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(15,022 posts)... a few weeks ago too.
A niece of mine is the director of operations at a nearby hospital. One of their elderly doctors contracted the Coronavirus. He demanded a transfusion of blood from someone who had recovered from Covid-19, with other doctors at the hospital supporting the idea.
It happened, and the doctor recovered from the Covid-19 symptoms quickly.
My niece said it wasnt a standard procedure for their other patients (at that time), but Ive seen requests from blood banks for donations from recovered Covid-19 patients lately.
Edit: Actually, I think it was plasma in his case too.