Columbus Regional Health has administered an experimental blood plasma therapy to more than 40 patients with COVID-19 since mid-April, with well over half of the patients improving after receiving the therapy.
The treatment, called convalescent plasma therapy, involves giving COVID-19 patients an infusion of blood plasma from people who have already recovered from the illness in hopes that antibodies produced by the recovered patient’s immune system will help other patients fight the infection, CRH officials said.
As of Tuesday, 41 COVID-19 patients at CRH had received the treatment since April 14, said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. A total of 56% of the patients have since been released from the hospital, with another 13% still hospitalized but improving.
“The majority were discharged within four days of receiving the therapy,” DeClue said.
Last month, CRH joined a national trial led by the Mayo Clinic that seeks to expand access to convalescent plasma therapy in the United States as medical providers around the country scramble to find an effective treatment for a virus that researchers and doctors are just beginning to understand.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
