The Mayo Clinic is spearheading a program supported by the Federal Government, and in collaboration with other institutions,  to collect and provide convalescent plasma to patients in need across the country. Blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients contains antibodies that may help fight the disease.

The Expanded Access Program has since April collected plasma from nearly 94,000 patients.  More than 64,000 COVID-19 patients have received the plasma.

The Mayo Clinic says that initial data available from studies using COVID-19 convalescent plasma for the treatment of individuals with severe or life-threatening disease indicate that a single dose of 200 mL showed benefit for some patients, leading to improvement.

The use of convalescent blood plasma goes back to the 1800s, according to the National Institutes of Health.  It has been used to try to help patients with diphtheria, measles, chickenpox, the epidemics of MERS and SARS, and the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1920, among others.

The Mayo Clinic says COVID-19 convalescent plasma has not yet been demonstrated to provide clinical benefit in patients affected by this disease. It’s not known if this treatment will or will not help those with COVID-19 or if it will have any harmful effects, but this is one of the only treatments that exists at present.

The FDA web site says convalescent plasma is being investigated for the treatment of COVID-19 because there is no approved treatment for this disease and there is some information that suggests it might help some patients recover from COVID-19. Further investigation is still necessary to determine if convalescent plasma might shorten the duration of illness, reduce morbidity, or prevent death associated with COVID-19.

The Mayo Clinic is urging those recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood plasma to help with this effort.  For more on the program, click here.

Blood Bank Hawaii has formed a coalition to treat COVID-19 patients, working with The Queen’s Health Systems, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kaiser Permanente, the state Department of Health, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) and other clinical laboratories.   Blood Bank Hawaii is collecting plasma from O’ahu residents who have had COVID-19 and have been symptom-free for 298 days, but they have not been doing neighbor island blood drives nor collecting blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients on neighbor islands.  BBH President Kim-Ahn Nguyen has not responded to an inquiry asking when and if BBH might collect plasma from neighbor island residents.  However, O’ahu has had 4,390 cumulative cases of COVID-19, with at least 2,000 people no longer in isolation, so there are many from whom BBH can collect plasma, if those people wish to volunteer to donate.  Nguyen has said there are patients receiving COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

Photo of blood plasma from Blood Bank Hawaii