New York medical authorities are ramping up efforts to try infusing desperately ill Covid patients with plasma donated by those who have recovered from the viral disease.
Long Island mom goes from isolation to donor
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-diary-long-island-mom-out-of-isolation-donates-plasma-for-victims/
Blood scientist sees promise in approach
https://www.foxnews.com/media/ny-blood-center-beth-shaz-plasma-coronavirus
Because such treatment is in the early phase, doctors do not yet know how effective this treatment may be.
Dr. Beth Shaz, chief medical and scientific officer at the New York Blood Center, said that currently "we have a handful of donors" but that the plasma treatment looks promising.
"You have to be at least 14 days after [having] symptoms," she said in a broadcast interview. "With the first cases in the New York area [confirmed] on March 1, we are just beginning to get there."
Shaz also said that once mass testing becomes available, many people who have had only mild Covid-19 symptoms will become part of the pool of potential plasma donors. The plasma from recovered persons provides antibodies that fight the Covid virus.
The New York Post has reported about a Long Island mother, Diana Berrent, who became one of the first people in New York to donate her blood plasma for treatment efforts.
"Take my blood. Take my plasma," Berrent said in the first-person story. "Swab my nasal passage over and over again. If it can potentially save a single life it would be nothing less than a miracle."
Long Island mom goes from isolation to donor
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-diary-long-island-mom-out-of-isolation-donates-plasma-for-victims/
Blood scientist sees promise in approach
https://www.foxnews.com/media/ny-blood-center-beth-shaz-plasma-coronavirus
Because such treatment is in the early phase, doctors do not yet know how effective this treatment may be.
Dr. Beth Shaz, chief medical and scientific officer at the New York Blood Center, said that currently "we have a handful of donors" but that the plasma treatment looks promising.
"You have to be at least 14 days after [having] symptoms," she said in a broadcast interview. "With the first cases in the New York area [confirmed] on March 1, we are just beginning to get there."
Shaz also said that once mass testing becomes available, many people who have had only mild Covid-19 symptoms will become part of the pool of potential plasma donors. The plasma from recovered persons provides antibodies that fight the Covid virus.
The New York Post has reported about a Long Island mother, Diana Berrent, who became one of the first people in New York to donate her blood plasma for treatment efforts.
"Take my blood. Take my plasma," Berrent said in the first-person story. "Swab my nasal passage over and over again. If it can potentially save a single life it would be nothing less than a miracle."
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