Wales’ biggest hospital has become the first in the UK to use a potentially groundbreaking “antibody transfusion” treatment on coronavirus patients.
The treatment being carried out on patients at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff uses the blood plasma taken from people who have already recovered from Covid-19.
Their plasma is then transfused into other patients with the coronavirus to help them fight the infection more quickly.
Recovered patients are being invited by letter, if eligible, by Public Health Wales to donate blood to the scheme.
Senior professional advisor to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Gill Richardson, said: “Convalescent plasma is plasma that is collected from patients who have recovered from disease, in this case Covid-19.
“Plasma from patients who have recovered from the virus will contain antibodies that a patient’s immune system has produced to fight the virus. This can be transfused to patients whose immune systems are struggling to develop their own antibodies.
“The Welsh Government has worked at speed with our expert scientists at the Welsh Blood Service, the Department of Immunology at University Hospital of Wales, critical care consultants and Public Health Wales to launch this innovative scheme.
“In the absence of any current vaccine or antiviral therapy, it has significant potential to aid the recovery of patients.”
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-antibody-transfusion-wales-cardiff-18087216HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!
I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you’ve enjoyed the site we’d love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around.
