COVID-19: Dubai Health Authority set to start treating patients with blood plasma
Guidelines have been establish to determine who will be treated by this method and how
Dubai: There is new hope for people suffering from coronavirus, as Dubai gears up to implement convalescent plasma therapy for critical patients this week.
On Saturday, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) had announced the use of this therapy, where the blood plasma of one who has recovered from COVID-19 is used to treat a person suffering from the disease.
Dr Younis Kazim, CEO of Dubai Healthcare Corporation at the DHA, said in a statement that the DHA has put protocols in place for the use of this type of treatment both its own hospitals as well as private ones in the emirate. He called it an important step towards the treatment and prevention of the spread of COVID-19, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
DHA has issued stringent guidelines to vet who can donate plasma and who can be treated using this therapy – these are based on international best practices.
Dr Kazim said DHA decided to utilize this method of treatment after international medical results found that once a person recovers from the virus, they develop antibodies that will fight future COVID-19 infections. Thus when it is introduced into a system with the virus, it will recognize and attack it.
The US Food and Drug Administration has also said that the use of convalescent plasma therapy helped speed the recovery of COVID-19 patients— decreasing the number of days they spend in the hospital.