Convalescent Plasma Therapy: A Century Old Technique for COVID-19 (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED It has been proved that the current COVID-19 pandemic can be loosely bound to its predecessor outbreaks i.e. SARS and MERS. No vaccine or approved treatment is available for either coronavirus. At present, COVID-19 has infected 2,436,743 people in over 200 countries with unprecedented transmission rate. Healthcare workers in China initiated treatment of clinically worsening COVID-19 patients with a traditional method of passive immunity i.e. transfusion of plasma recovered from COVID-19 recuperated patients. According to available medical data, this technique is routinely favored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and has been in use since 1890 for combatting newly emerging infectious diseases, most commonly of a viral origin. Exploration of studies carried out on Convalescent Plasma and its effectiveness in the past steered our path to theorize the possibility of reducing mortality with convalescent plasma therapy and put together reviewed evidence to support our rallying efforts for enlisting this in the official treatment protocol of COVID-19.