Plasma treatment will be used in the treatment of COVID 19 patients. This is after South Korean doctors successfully treated two patients with severe conditions of the virus using the therapy.
South Korea researchers are now considering using plasma therapy to treat COVID 19. This is after they successfully treated two elderly patients who were severely ill with the virus using the therapy. The researchers released a statement on their success on April 7th, giving hopes to more than 1.4 million people already infected with the virus.
Plasma therapy trials
Researchers used plasma from 20-year-old recovered patients to treat the two infected individuals. The plasma was able to boost the immune systems of the patients through the antibodies acquired from the plasma donors, helping them to fight the infection and fully recover.
Researchers from Severance Hospital, where the two patients were treated, expressed optimism on the new treatment therapy. They also said it would be an effective alternative for patients who were not responding to other forms of treatment, such as antimalaria drugs and other antiviral drugs.
Successful treatment of patients
The two patients who were treated using the therapy were a 71-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman. Both of these patients had failed to respond to the other treatments. However, when they were treated with plasma treatment, they both recovered and one has already been discharged from the hospital.
Both patients had been treated using the antimalaria drugs and also anti-HIV drugs had also been used on them but their conditions had failed to improve. The 71-year-old man had no underlying condition and the treatment took 26 days.
The second patient, however, had underlying conditions having been diagnosed with hypertension. Her treatment took 24 days and has since been discharged from the hospital, having recovered fully from the virus.
The plasma therapy research is already being researched in France, where 60 patients are currently taking part in the study. Half of the patients will receive plasma from recovered patients and their results will be documented. The trials will provide enough data on the efficacy of the treatment and provide hope to millions of people who have been infected or affected by the coronavirus around the world.
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