Image | WBJ Source: Massachusetts Department of Public Health
April 21, 2020
UMass Memorial reports success with first plasma coronavirus treatment
Photo | Edd Cote
A coronavirus screening center UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus in Worcester
By Grant Welker
UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester has reported encouraging results from the first coronavirus patient it has treated with the blood plasma of a recovered patient.
After hours of transfusion, the patient has dramatically improved and is being weaned off a ventilator, the hospital said Tuesday. That's a dramatic improvement after the critically ill patient was on the ventilator near maximum settings to get enough oxygen.
The Worcester Business Journal reported Monday that UMass Memorial received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to use convalescent plasma from a recovered patient for a potential new treatment for the virus. Dr. Jonathan Gerber, the medical director of the UMass Memorial Cancer Center, is leading the program in partnership with the American Red Cross.
Last week, UMass Memorial began asking residents from Central Massachusetts who've recovered from coronavirus to consider signing up for a registry and become a potential plasma donor.
Plasma in a recovered coronavirus patient contains antibodies allowing for that person's immune system to fight the virus, according to the FDA. That plasma may also be able to help someone else fight the virus as well, according to the agency. The FDA considers plasma an investigational treatment for the virus, and it gave hospitals guidance beginning last week on potential use of plasma for treatment.
Convalescent plasma, or plasma from recovered patients, has been used for other respiratory outbreaks, including SARS, MERS and H1N1, according to the FDA.
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