Blood Bank Sanquin is looking for 16,000 donors who have recently been infected with the corona virus. Sanquin confirms this after reporting in The Telegraph. Scientists hope to make a corona drug with antibodies from the blood of these ex-corona patients.
Powerful antibodies
The Amsterdam UMC had previously succeeded in producing two powerful antibodies against the coronavirus from the blood of ex-corona patients.
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Those antibodies can be administered preventively in new patients. That approach does not work if someone is already very ill. “But if you start at the very front – so if you have not yet contracted the virus or get such a powerful ampoule with concentrated anti-coronant substances very early in the disease process – it can have a powerful preventive effect,” explains professor of infectious diseases and microbiology Hans Zaaijer. in De Telegraaf.
30,000 kilos of plasma
Blood Bank Sanquin has therefore been commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) to collect 30,000 kilos of blood plasma from ex-corona patients. This requires ‘very many’ donors, Zaaijer says in the newspaper.
Earlier, scientists told RTL News to be ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the antibodies in the blood of ex-corona patients.
For example, virologist Gorben Pijlman from Wageningen University said that such a short-acting or ‘passive’ vaccine can be useful for, for example, healthcare personnel who are more likely to be infected. But he doesn’t expect it to be available to everyone. “It is not an injection of a few euros.”
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