New York state plans to treat severe coronavirus patients with a 100-year-old blood therapy

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

which uses the plasma of recovered patients

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said Monday that his state plans to start treating coronavirus patients with the blood of recovered patients.

The use of so-called "convalescent plasma" dates back to the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918, but hasn't been used in a major way in the US for decades.

The therapy will involve injecting patients with the plasma of people who have recovered from the coronavirus, and therefore have the antibodies in their system needed to kill the virus.

It isn't a cure for the virus, but will help lessen patients' symptoms and help them recover faster.

Cuomo said this therapy will be trialed only on critically ill patients first, to see if it's safe and effective, then rolled out to other patients.

https://news.yahoo.com/york-state-plans-treat-severe-105029959.html

[demigoddess]

1. I thought about this and wondered if it would work.

Not exactly the worst idea. Sounds terrible tho. But blood donations helped a lot when I had severe anemia, and that can kill you.

[Anon-C]

2. Why am I having a hard time confirming if SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies have in fact been...

...isolated anywhere in the world? I suppose they have been, right?

[intrepidity]

9. Yes

Not *absolutely* certain about monoclonals but polyclonal for sure.

Likely monoclonals as well, but considering the research is still early, we don't know for certain which epitopes are effective therapeutic targets--but we have nearly a decade of research on other coronavirii.

Here's a link you may find useful:

https://www.finddx.org/covid-19/pipeline/

[Anon-C]

16. Very useful indeed!

Thank you!

[RT Atlanta]

3. I appreciate them trying this

and encourage every REASONABLE and ETHICAL approach to treating/lessening the effects of this disease.

[zackymilly]

4. I thought it was going to be leeches. n/t

[grantcart]

8. All of the leeches are used up serving in the Administration and Republican congressional offices.

[mnhtnbb]

11. Great comment!

[StarryNite]

12. LOL

[cstanleytech]

15. No, not all of them as there are plenty still working at Fox News.

[Dem_4_Life]

5. That is really smart and interesting.

I hope this works. I am so impressed with him.

[milestogo]

6. I thought it was going to be trepanation.

[Chemisse]

7. Good old "horse serum".

Starting in the 1890s, horses were injected with diseases, such as diptheria. They built up antibodies to them and then their plasma was then injected into people who were infected with the disease to help them fight it off and survive.

https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/horse-serum

[Johnny2X2X]

10. This sounds crazy and silly

Are we this desperate already? It's not been used because almost anything works better.

[StarryNite]

13. Like what works better?

And why aren't they using those other things?

[GeorgeGist]

14. I received such treatments in 1952 while infected with polio virus ...

I recovered without permanent damage.