Tehran, 07 May_Hopes are emerging for treatment of coronavirus patients through plasma therapy.
According to Iranian health officials, the primary results of plasma therapy for the novel coronavirus disease are promising and some patients have been saved from dying, but the definite results will become clear at the end of the project.
The world’s largest plasma therapy project for treatment of COVID-19 patients is underway in Iran, under which a great number of studies and clinical trials has been carried out in the country.
Almost 300 people, who have recovered from COVID-19 have so far donated plasma which will be used for researches and treating patients in Iran.
Meanwhile, WHO representative in Iran, Dr. Christoph Hamelmann, who has already praised Iran’s efforts in the fight against the Coronavirus, visited the plasma donation center at Iran’s Blood Transfusion Organization. During the visit, Dr. Christoph who has recovered from the disease donated his own plasma.
Plasma is supposed to be used for those patients with medium and severe levels of the disease, but with a pandemic wave of the disease, ICU patients were prioritized to receive plasma.
With the plasma-therapy center launched, the project was conducted in Tehran, Qom, and a number of other provinces' hospitals.
When a person has COVID-19, their immune system responds by creating antibodies, which attack the virus. These antibodies could be taken from a recovered COVID-19 patient, and infused into someone recently infected with the virus. Plasma therapy has proved to be effective in the treatment of other diseases such as SARS, MERS-CoV, and Ebola.