It makes little sense to administer blood plasma from cured corona patients to newly infected people who have just started getting the first corona symptoms.
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The plasma fails to stop the disease and thus has “no significant benefit.” That is the conclusion of the American National Institutes of Health (NIH), a government agency.
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The NIH have stopped a trial of so-called convalescent plasma. That plasma contains the antibodies of people who have gone through corona and have recovered from it. It was administered to several hundred people from all over the US. They had just tested positive for corona and all belonged to a risk group, for example because they were overweight, high blood pressure or diabetes. Almost one in three people who received the plasma nevertheless developed worse corona complaints. Another group was given a placebo to check the results, and there too the complaints got worse in one in three people.
“The results show that convalescent plasma does not appear to offer any benefit to this particular group,” the researchers conclude. They don’t yet know why the plasma doesn’t seem to work. Perhaps the plasma dose was too low, was given at the wrong time, or the plasma is not properly absorbed by the recipient. Further research should clarify this.
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