Is It True That The Blood Of A Former Corona Virus Sufferer Can Treat Other Survivors?

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - A senior official from the Chinese health agency asked people who have recovered from a disease caused by the corona virus to donate blood last Thursday, February 13.

The reason is there is a possibility that the blood plasma contains proteins that can be used to treat sick patients, as reported by The New York Times.

The call for blood donations for former coronavirus sufferers came after the state-owned China National Biotec Group announced that the antibodies were successful in helping the treatment of 10 critically ill patients and reducing their inflammation within 12 to 24 hours.

The question is whether this method is effective? According to health experts, as reported by Live Science, this approach is a sensible and promising way to treat coronavirus patients who are critically ill.

However, because the corona virus threatens to have a low death rate, it does not mean that all "experimental" methods make sense. Doctors should be aware of side effects, experts say.

To understand how the principle of using the blood plasma of a former person with the corona virus is something like this. It should be noted that antibodies are proteins that allow the immune system to fight disease threats including viruses, bacteria, or other foreign substances.

Each threat from foreign substances is not the same antibody. Meanwhile, if the body is attacked by a new virus, it takes time for the immune system to increase the production of new antibodies.

Then if the same virus or bacteria tries to attack again in the future, the body will recognize the threat and can quickly produce antibodies.

Meanwhile, people who have just recovered from COVID-19 already have antibodies to the corona virus circulating in their blood. Injecting antibodies into sick patients could theoretically help patients fight infection better.

In other words, the treatment would transfer the recovered patient's immunity to the sick patient. This approach has been commonly used before in dealing with previous pandemics.

"I am pleased to know that in this dire state of affairs, the plasma from the survivors is in the testing phase," said Carol Shoshkes Reiss, a New York University professor of biology and neuroscience. However, they still need to anticipate the possible side effects of these treatments.

It should be noted that plasma infusion treatment like this is just one of the many treatment options being considered by experts to treat people with the coronavirus, which has caused nearly 70,000 cases and left 1,669 people dead as of February 16.