(Nicoletta Lanese / LiveScience) — COVID-19 patients treated with the blood of those who have recovered from the infection die at significantly lower rates than those given standard treatments alone, according to a preliminary analysis.
In their analysis, posted July 30 to the preprint database bioRxiv, the researchers looked at a dozen trials where hospitalized COVID-19 patients received convalescent plasma (CP) therapy — a treatment that involves drawing blood plasma from recovered patients and injecting the antibody-rich fluid into sick patients. The 12 trials, conducted at various sites around the world, included more than 800 participants in total, and when taken together, suggest that patients given plasma were less than half as likely to die as patients given other treatments, according to the report.
Specifically, the mortality rate among patients given plasma was 13%, compared with 25% among patients given standard treatments. While that’s trending in the right direction, the new analysis wasn’t peer reviewed, and neither was some of the trial data the analysis looked at. (…)