The latest on Omicron
The World Health Organization made a strong recommendation Monday against using convalescent plasma to treat Covid-19 patients, saying there was no indication it helped patients and that it took time and resources to administer.
Convalescent plasma is made from the blood of people who have recovered from an infection such as Covid-19. Plasma is the liquid portion of blood carrying immune cells and antibodies — proteins the body makes to fight infection. The plasma can be infused into a sick person in the hope of speeding recovery with from some diseases.
The new WHO recommendations, which were published in the British Medical Journal, said:
“The Guideline Development Group made a strong recommendation against the use of convalescent plasma in patients with non-severe illness, and a recommendation against its use in patients with severe and critical illness, except in the context of a randomized clinical trial.”
Convalescent plasma treatment has been around since the late Victorian era and has been used to treat two other deadly coronaviruses, including MERS and SARS.
WHO said it changed its recommendations because it recognized “no clear benefit for critical outcomes such as mortality and mechanical ventilation for patients with non-severe, severe, or critical illness, and significant resource requirements in terms of cost and time for administration.”
For patients with non-severe illness, the guidance said, it was not justified. For patients with severe and critical illness, there was “sufficient uncertainty” to warrant the continuation of trials.
The decision was based on evidence from 16 trials involving 16,236 patients with non-severe, severe, and critical Covid-19 infection.
Monday’s guidance also recommended against the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and added to previous recommendations for the use of corticosteroids in patients with severe or critical Covid-19 and for the use of interleukin-6 receptor blockers, as well as conditional recommendations for the use of monoclonal antibody treatments in some patients.
