Tuesday, March 24, 2020

FDA will allow doctors to treat critically ill coronavirus patients with blood from survivors

Via Daughter Christine

Image: New York City Hospital Adds New Protocols And Triage To Address Coronavirus

Experts say the treatment might be the best hope for some patients until more sophisticated drugs are developed.

The Food and Drug Administration will allow doctors across the country to begin using plasma donated by coronavirus survivors to treat patients who are critically ill with the virus, under new emergency protocols approved Tuesday.

The FDA’s decision comes a day after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state’s health department planned to begin treating the sickest coronavirus patients with antibody-rich plasma extracted from the blood of those who’ve recovered.

The treatment, known as convalescent plasma, dates back centuries and was used during the flu pandemic of 1918, in an era before modern vaccines and antiviral drugs. Some experts have argued that it might be the best hope for combating the coronavirus until more sophisticated therapies can be developed, which could take several months.

More @ NBC

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