File photo of a person donating blood plasma in Amsterdam, Netherlands used for representation. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Doha: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Blood Transfusion services play a major role in COVID-19 convalescent plasma treatment programme. They are responsible for collection of plasma from patients who have recovered from the infection.
“Blood Transfusion service is participating in the program of using COVID-19 convalescent plasma for treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 infection only through collection of plasma from patients who have recovered from the infection,” said Sadika Al Mahmoudi, Medical Manager of Blood Donation Center.
“The actual administration of this plasma to severely affected patients is taken care of by the attending physicians in charge of treating those patients,” she told The Peninsula.
Until May 17, 91 patients have received plasma from 79 recovered donors and the team is seeing the number of donations from recovered patients rise each week. Convalescent plasma, the fluid in blood rich with antibodies post-illness, has proven effective in small studies to treat infectious diseases including Ebola and SARS.
HMC is using state-of-the-art treatment options for patients with COVID-19 who are currently under its care and one treatment uses the blood plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients. The plasma contains antibodies that have been shown to help improve immunity against COVID-19.
“The plasma therapy is showing promise as a treatment for COVID-19. It is also called convalescent plasma treatment and requires blood plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19. We have started using plasma treatment at the Communicable Disease Center using plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19,” said Dr. Muna Al Maslamani, Medical Director, Communicable Disease Center in a television interview recently.
