Review Article on Convalescent Plasma Therapy For COVID-19

Abstract

In December 2019, China witnessed a novel coronavirus (COVID 19) in Wuhan which eventually became a pandemic on March 11, 2020. No specific drugs, vaccines have been approved yet for its treatment as it is a novel virus, though convalescent plasma is expected to increase the survival rates and also it is easily available. Studies have shown that in every epidemic, medical professionals often use plasma because it is the only available option at that time. This passive antibody therapy has been used since the 1890s to treat emerging infections and diseases like measles, Ebola, H1N1 flu, polio, etc. Researchers at John Hopkins University were specially the first ones to get approval from the FDA for the clinical trials as in some cases of emergency, they tried plasma therapy and got success. After China and the US and several other countries showed relative improvement rates with convalescent plasma therapy, INDIA has therefore also given the go-ahead for framing a protocol to conduct a clinical trial for the same. Plasma collected from recovered COVID patients has neutralizing antibodies which are expected to reduce the duration of infection. According to the scientific data, Convalescent Plasma Therapy in COVID 19 seems effective, safe and reduces death rates. Further development of improved plasma, vaccines and other therapeutic agents depends on the quick generation of data on pathogenesis and immune response of SARS- COV-2