First COVID-19 critically ill patient at UMass Memorial treated with plasma showing significant

[CentralMass]

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 donor’s 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]

1. Recommend.

[uponit7771]

2. K&R, if they are able to replicate we can do more than 100 people.

[htuttle]

3. Hoping that means that there are SOME antibodies produced and available after getting better

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]

4. some info on that

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/coronavirus-immunity-questions-answered/

If you get measles, Swartzberg explains, you’ll be immune for the rest of your life. Your body’s antibodies and the cells that produce them will be ready to fight off the virus if you ever encounter it again. “That’s a typical response to an infectious disease,” he says. “But not all infectious diseases.” In the case of syphilis, for instance, we don’t develop immunity in the same way.

Historically, with other human coronaviruses—the ones that nobody talks about because they basically only cause the common cold—experts 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.

It’s not yet clear which camp COVID-19 falls into. “It’s too early to tell what kind of immune response people are amounting to this virus and if they’re able to produce the proper kinds of antibodies that would neutralize a subsequent infection,” Graham says.

[luvtheGWN]

12. I believe the coronavirus that causes the common cold

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]

14. I'm under the impression that there are a limited, although large number of different cold viruses.

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]

21. There are approximately 200 rhinoviruses and once you've had one, you don't

Last edited Wed Apr 22, 2020, 11:48 AM - Edit history (1)

get that same one again.

(Rhinoviruses cause many colds.)

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. Thank you for that.

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]

32. My subject line was changed to "retroviruses" by autocorrect, but fortunately

you picked up on the fact I meant rhinoviruses because it wasn't changed in the message box.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

34. Actually, it was probably my mild inclination to dyslexia

that caused me to read retrovirus as rhinovirus!

[grantcart]

5. Tom Hanks mentioned that he and Rita had donated blood for plasma treatment.

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. Yes! I was just about to post that as well.

[treestar]

26. Good, that means they recovered

Always end up wondering what happened to the well-known people who tested positive.

[Marrah_Goodman]

6. YES!!!!

[Xipe Totec]

7. Go UMass! nt

[BigmanPigman]

8. Is a person limited as to how much plasma he can donate to help others?

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]

23. I'm guessing

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]

29. it was- 1 donation 4 treatments. yes, people can give again.

esp since it's just plasma donation, you can give again sooner.

[BigmanPigman]

35. Good to know, thanks!

[ihaveaquestion]

9. Another reason to ramp up testing...

To identify the pool of plasma donors for treatment until a vaccine is found.

[struggle4progress]

22. +

[crickets]

30. *ding!* Exactly. nt

[GulfCoast66]

10. I can work. Was being used effectively in the early 1900s but after vaccinations and antibiotics

For bacterial infections it was shelved. Unlike the trump pushed mumbo jumbo, this has potential.

[BComplex]

25. A country doctor in Michigan used this to treat cancer, and it worked, back in the 90's.

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]

11. Yes, convalescent plasma therapy looks hopeful.

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]

13. need more tests to identify more donors, obviously.

Once again those eggheaded, smarty pants science type people save will save the day for their deniers.

[Lonestarblue]

17. Trump is deliberately sabotaging the test supply.

He doesn’t 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]

24. Word up!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. The real question is, can this be ramped up to help

more or less everyone hospitalized with this?

[murpheeslaw]

16. Is the cured patient then able to donate plasma?

Is their body’s 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]

18. This is why we need ANTIBODY TESTS FOR EVERYONE NOW. nt

[raccoon]

20. Great! Gives us hope. Nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

27. Yeah, there was a successful case in Ohio...

... 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 wasn’t a standard procedure for their other patients (at that time), but I’ve seen requests from blood banks for donations from recovered Covid-19 patients lately.

Edit: Actually, I think it was plasma in his case too.

[crickets]

31. Yes, I remember reading about this as well. nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

33. I didn't even know it was in the news!

Looked it up just now, and found it: https://www.whio.com/news/local/coronavirus-miami-valley-hospital-cardiologist-remains-stable-after-receiving-plasma/PR2OPA7SM5AUZDP3TI5O476VMU/?outputType=amp