China using plasma from recovered patients to treat coronavirus

Chinese doctors are using infusions of blood plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat the critically ill patients still battling the disease.

Lu Hongzhou, professor and co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, said on Monday that the hospital had set up a special clinic to administer plasma therapy and was selecting patients who were willing to donate.

“We are positive that this method can be very effective in our patients.”

The blood would be screened to check if the individual has other diseases such as hepatitis B or C, he added.

The head of a Wuhan hospital had said plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results.

On Thursday night, China National Biotec Group Co. said in a statement that it had been using this plasma, which contains highly potent antibodies, to treat more than 10 severely ill patients since February 8.

The company said the patients’ condition clearly improved in terms of inflammation, blood oxygen levels and virus counts in their body within 12 to 24 hours after the plasma infusion.

Experts say in the absence of a vaccine and specifically targeted drugs, the use of such plasma is the most effective way to treat the infection and can significantly reduce the death toll.

Drug makers and Chinese authorities are racing to develop a cure for the virus that has no approved treatment or vaccine.

China has also unleashed a flurry of clinical trials to curb the outbreak that is threatening its economic growth.

There are no fully licensed treatments or vaccines against the new coronavirus, and the process of developing and testing drugs can take many months and even years.

As well as using plasma therapies doctors are also trying antiviral drugs licensed for use against other infections to see if they might help.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China reached 1,770 as of the end of Sunday, up by 105 from the previous day, according to the National Health Commission of China.

China reports rise in new virus cases as death toll nears 1,800

China says the number of reported new cases of coronavirus rise in Hubei province after two days of fall.

At least 100 of the new deaths were from the province of Hubei, the epicenter of the epidemic, the commission said on Monday morning. 

Across the country, there were 2,048 new confirmed infections, about 1,933 from Hubei alone, pushing the new total to 70,548.

Hubei has announced tough new measures to try to curb the outbreak, ordering its cities to block roads to all private vehicles.

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