High Demand for Convalescent Plasma

WAAY-31's Max Cohan discusses the benefits of donating plasma to COVID patients.

Tonight we are learning more about the use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus patients and the growing need we have for donors in the community... waay 31's max cohan joins us live after talking to dr. ali hassoun about the current situation, max?

Doctor hassoun told me that the hospital is currently asking blood banks for 10 to 15 units of plasma per day, sometimes more...he says the wait time for the plasma has already increased compared to just a few months ago and with cases continuing to rise he says its likely they'll use more and in turn need more... "so it is very important, especially now, i can tell you with the cases go up significantly, there is going to be for sure shortage of convalescent plasma."

Dr. ali hassoun of huntsville hospital says they've been treating covid patients with blood plasma of those who've recovered since the early days of the pandemic.

He says they've found that it's most effective if the plasma has a high level of antibodies and is administered to patients within the first 3 to 7 days of show symptoms. "you need to keep in mind, when we give plasma, most of these patients will receive as well steroids as well as rendeziver."

Hassoun says the combination of treatments seems most effective, but noted that patients who only received the plasma before the other options were available claimed to feel better and recovered.

While the plasma isn't the only thing used today -- hassoun says the supply is already getting low... "i think it's gonna go down and you know we used to be able to get the plasma within hours, now we are waiting longer to get these, so as the cases gonna keep going up,we're definitely going to have more shortage of it."

Hassoun said there is a definite need for people to continue donating and encourages people who've recovered to reach out to blook banks to find out of it they qualify to donate.

Live in huntsville, max cohan, waay 31 news.

Thanks max, dr. hassoun also said the hospital also hopes to soon have purified plasma which uses multiple antibodies together to