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Published 6:08 p.m. CT April 11, 2020 | Updated 7:16 p.m. CT April 11, 2020
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An elderly man critically ill from the coronavirus is among the first few patients in Milwaukee to receive a plasma transfusion in hopes that the antibodies from someone who has recovered from COVID-19 will help his body fight the virus.
“He tolerated it well and is in stable condition,” said Dr. Ajay Sahajpal, director of Advocate Aurora’s Health transplant program, and member of the team that administered the transfusion on Friday at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center. “We won’t know if he’s out of the woods for a week or so.”
Plasma transfusions are much like blood transfusions. They take a couple of hours and carry similar risks of fever, allergic reactions and the slight possibility for transmission of infectious disease. They’ve been used historically as last resorts to help squash rapidly spreading contagions.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this month approved clinical trials for the use of plasma transfusions in combating COVID-19 and has approved the treatment as an emergency investigational new drug.
Advocate Aurora Health and other health care systems in the region are partnering with the Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin and the American Red Cross in Illinois to collect plasma from patients who’ve recovered from COVID-19.
“The biggest limitation to scaling this more broadly is that there are just not enough donors,” Sahajpal said.
Although more than 275,000 people across the U.S. have been infected with the virus, fewer than 10,000 are considered to have recovered. To be considered recovered from the virus and eligible to donate, patients have to be symptom free for 28 days, or for at least 14 days with a verified negative test.
Recovered patients interested in donating plasma can apply online.
A Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin doctor was among the first in the area to donate his plasma. He tested positive for the virus in mid-March and has since recovered.
UW Health in Madison is involved in the nationwide effort to launch clinical trials to test efficacy of the plasma transfusions.
Survivor plasma showed promising results in a small Chinese study of five COVID-19 patients, published a few days ago in The Journal of The American Medical Association. The five patients, ranging in age from 36 to 65, were all on mechanical ventilation when they received the plasma. Four recovered from acute respiratory distress syndrome. At 37 days following the plasma infusion, three of the five patients had been released from the hospital; the other two were in stable condition.
Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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Health Milwaukee man stable after experimental plasma transfusion to fight coronavirus, but he"s not out of the woods - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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