Convalescent-plasma Therapy was in the spotlight to help in the development of a new coronavirus drug derived from the blood plasma of people who have recovered from Covid-19.
About:
In the early 20th century, convalescent plasma treatment was used during outbreaks of diseases such as measles, mumps, and influenza, the H1N1 influenza pandemic, and again in 2013 during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
How is blood plasma turned into an infection-fighting drug?
Patients who have recovered from the disease have permanent antibodies generated by the immune system floating in their blood plasma.
Plasma is harvested, tested for safety, and purified to isolate those protective antibodies.
When injected into a new patient, the “plasma-derived therapy” — also known as convalescent plasma — provides “passive immunity” until the patient’s immune system can generate its own antibodies.
What is Convalescent plasma?
Convalescent plasma refers to plasma obtained from an individual who has recuperated from an infection.
During the infectious period, the individual’s immune system would have mounted an attack on the foreign virus.
By the time the virus is vanquished, the body would have developed ammunition specifically to beat the virus, which will be a type of antibody.
These antibodies are suspended in the circulating blood and can be separated out from one of the components of blood – the plasma.
Convalescent-Plasma Therapy
Context:
Convalescent-plasma Therapy was in the spotlight to help in the development of a new coronavirus drug derived from the blood plasma of people who have recovered from Covid-19.
About:
In the early 20th century, convalescent plasma treatment was used during outbreaks of diseases such as measles, mumps, and influenza, the H1N1 influenza pandemic, and again in 2013 during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
How is blood plasma turned into an infection-fighting drug?
What is Convalescent plasma?