Anyone in the Greater Houston area who has recovered from COVID-19 and been symptom-free for at least two weeks are being asked to fill out this form to determine if they qualify to donate plasma to UTHealth and potentially save lives.
In addition, to qualify, a blood plasma donor must be at least 18 years of age and be in overall good health, with no cold or flu symptoms, according to the news release.
The plasma, which is the component of blood that carries cells and proteins throughout the body, can be full of antibodies from those that have recovered COVID-19, which can be transfused to sick persons to help them overcome the COVID-19 illness.
“To fight an infection, you need antibodies to track down and kill the virus,” said Dr. Henry Wang, executive vice chair of research in the Department of Emergency Medicine with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. “People who are critically ill from the COVID-19 virus often don’t have the antibodies needed to fight the virus. Using this strategy called ‘convalescent plasma,’ we transfuse the antibodies from surviving victims in hopes that it will attack the virus and boost recovery.”
The therapy has not been tested in randomized clinical trials, though convalescent blood plasma has been successfully used in other infection outbreaks dating back more than 100 years ago, including the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, measles, SARS, and Ebola.
With the therapy, UTHealth and Memorial Hermann have joined the Convalescent Plasma Expanded Access Program led by the Mayo Clinic. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated the program for academic medical centers across the country to allow access to the therapy because there are no other viable treatment options for COVID-19.
UT Health is among several area institutions investigating transfusions to fight the outbreak. Baylor College of Medicine and the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center began partnering April 8 to procure COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma from appropriate donors while Houston Methodist Hospital was given the go-ahead March 28 by the Food and Drug Administration through an Emergency Investigational New Drug application to transfuse donated plasma, while St. Luke’s Medical Center has already performed several of the same procedures under the same applications.
