Convalescent Plasma: WHO Warns That COVID-19 Plasma Therapy Still Experimental, No Real Evidence That It Works, Others Say Could Backfire
Source: Convalescent Plasma Aug 25, 2020 4 years, 2 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 18 hours, 42 minutes ago
Convalescent Plasma: WHO or the World Health Organization yesterday warned that using blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors to treat other patients is still considered an experimental therapy, voicing the concern as a U.S. boost for the treatment has many scientists afraid formal studies will be derailed.
Shockingly on Sunday, the U.S. FDA authorized what's called "emergency use" of the treatment under its special powers to speed the availability of promising experimental drugs during a public health crisis. The action isn't the same as approving plasma as safe and effective, and numerous rigorous studies are underway to find out if it really works.
There were speculations that once again the White House was overriding scientific processes after it was earlier said that the US FDA was actually going to put plasma therapy on hold.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/us-coronavirus-news-white-house-pressures-u-s-fda-to-authorize-use-of-blood-plasma-to-treat-covid-19-sudden-announcement-made-late-sunday
WHO's chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said during a press briefing yesterday, “So far, the results are not conclusive. At the moment, it is still very low-quality evidence."
Plasma therapy or convalescent plasma is a century-old treatment that was used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and was tried more recently during the Ebola outbreak. When the body encounters a new germ, it makes proteins called antibodies that are specially targeted to fight the infection. The antibodies float in plasma the yellowish, liquid part of blood which is collected from COVID-19 survivors and given to patients infected with coronavirus.
Dr Swaminathan said WHO considered plasma therapy to be experimental and that it should continue to be evaluated. She said the treatment is difficult to standardize: Plasma must be collected individually, and people produce different levels of antibodies.
She added, "Of course, countries can do an emergency listing if they feel the benefits outweigh the risks. But that is usually done when you're waiting for the more definitive evidence."
It was said that in a letter describing the U.S. FDA's emergency action, the agency's chief scientist said the treatment "should not be considered a new standard of care" for coronavirus infections, and that more data from studies will be available in the coming months.
However already, so many COVID-19 patients have requested plasma rather than agreeing to be part of a research study that many scientists fear they won't get a clear answer on whether the treatment really works and if it does, how and when it should be used for the best outcomes.
Dr Martin Landray, of the University of Oxford said that while the therapy offers "huge promise," there was still no proof it works.
He added, "There is a huge gap between theory and proven benefit.”
Dr Landray, who is conducting a plasma study in the U.K said, “If just a few thousand patients took part in a proper research with control groups and standardized therapeutics, we would have the answer if effective, convalescent plasma could be rapidly used worldwide. If not, it could be abandoned,"
Dr Stephen Griffin, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Leeds, said there was still considerable uncertainty about the immune system's response to COVID-19, making any potential use of convalescent plasma challenging.
The U.S FDA's action was surprisingly announced during a Sunday press briefing by U.S. President Donald Trump, who called it a "breakthrough."
"Sadly, it appears that the lessons from hydroxychloroquine have not been learned," Griffin said, referring to the malaria drug touted by Trump and others as a potential treatment for the coronavirus.
The U.S.FDA also granted hydroxychloroquine an emergency authorization before suspending it months later after several trials showed the drug didn't work against COVID-19 and raised the risk of heart, kidney, liver and other problems.
Many experts are also warning that crude usage of convalescent plasma could also lead to antibody resistant variants or strains emerging with claims that such strains have already emerged.
At the rate things are developing in America, it is expected that the COVID-19 crisis is expected to reach catastrophic levels in the country in the coming months.
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