How do COVID-19 survivors' blood plasma donations help save other infected patients?
Survivors of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have found a new mission in life: to save other COVID-19 patients through donating their blood plasma.
As of April 13, 21 out of 65 COVID-19 survivors in the Philippines have been screened and declared qualified to give blood plasma donations.
Among those who already donated their blood plasma was Senator Sonny Angara, who posted a photo himself during the extraction of blood plasma on Instagram.
Part of his caption reads: “Gave my plasma and it went straight to a hospital in QC to a man on a ventilator- a severe case of COVID19.”
But how exactly does a survivor's blood plasma help save someone who's infected with COVID-19?
Dr. Jonas del Rosario, Public Affairs Coordinator of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), explained how it works.
“Ang taong gumagaling dito [COVID-19] ay nakaka-acquire ng tinatawag nating antibodies sa dugo.
"So, yung antibodies na 'yon ay nasa plasma. Pwede nilang ibigay 'yon sa ibang may sakit na COVID-19 na lumalaban pa.”
Moreover, he said that they make sure that a survivor is truly negative of COVID-19 before allowing him/her to donate blood.
COVID-19 survivors are only allowed to donate blood two weeks after testing negative and after going through screening.
A COVID-19 survivor donates his blood plasma
Dr. del Rosario also described the process of donating blood plasma. He said, “Fini-filiter 'yon in such a way na plasma lang talaga yung nado-donate niya at yung red blood cells ay bumabalik sa kanya.
"For every 500 mL, isang pasyente po ang makakatanggap.”
Watch the full report about blood plasma donations of COVID-19 survivors in this episode of Stand for Truth.
For more news on the Coronavirus Disease pandemic, go to GMA Network's COVID-19 page.
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