Four hospitals will begin this clinical trial, namely Fatmawati Hospital Jakarta, Hasan Sadikin Hospital Bandung, Dr. Ramelan Surabaya, and Sidoarjo East Java Regional Hospital. Furthermore, 20 other hospitals will soon be followed.
According to Plt. Head of Research and Development Agency, dr. Slamet, the clinical trial of conventional plasma administration will recruit 364 patients as participants.
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“It is targeted that in the next three months this research will be completed and get results or evidence of the safety and effectiveness of this conventional plasma therapy,” said dr. Slamet.
The use of blood plasma in medicine is not new. The use of plasma from recovered patients as therapy has been carried out for the treatment of swine flu outbreaks in 2009, Ebola, SARS, and MERS.
Convalescent plasma therapy in covid-19 should only be used for emergencies and in research conditions. The benefits of this therapy are controversial because there is insufficient evidence to show its effectiveness. This randomized controlled trial is an important part of addressing this controversy.
As the name implies, this therapy is carried out by giving plasma, which is the part of the blood that contains antibodies from people who have recovered from Covid-19. Covid-19 survivors can become convalescent plasma donors by undergoing a number of examinations and meeting the requirements.
