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Ministry to pick blood from recovered Covid-19 patients
Ministry of Health permanent secretary, Dr Diana Atwine. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Dr Misaki Wayengera, the chairperson of Scientific Advisory Board on Covid-19 at the ministry, said the board was requesting for the above development.
Ministry of Health has said discussions are ongoing with scientists to start collecting blood from people who recovered from Covid-19 to treat patients with weak immunity.
Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary at the ministry, said this follows evidence of the procedure’s effectiveness in other countries.
Plasma therapy allows someone who has recovered from the coronavirus to donate their blood plasma to someone who is critically ill.
“We are discussing to start picking blood from people who have recovered. But we are still in very early stages of doing that,” Dr Atwine said yesterday.
“What they do is that they get antibodies from people who have recovered and infuse it on another person so that those antibodies fight on behalf of the person with weak immunity,” Dr Atwine added.
The permanent secretary said there are strict ethical issues that are being followed before such an exercise is done.
“It is not automatic that people who have recovered should give their blood. These things involving human life have many protocols that must be undertaken. It is not just something that can be done quickly like that. It requires the proposal, institutional review board, full review and approval,” she added.
Dr Misaki Wayengera, the chairperson of Scientific Advisory Board on Covid-19 at the ministry, said the board was requesting for the above development.
“Our scientists are working around to request those who have recovered to donate their blood so that the Blood Bank at Nakasero can begin to take plasma from it,” he said.
He said treatment with plasma therapy is feasible and it has been demonstrated to save severely ill patients.
“It is something we should look at,” he added.
However, previously in an interview with Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, a clinical immunologist and director of Uganda Virus Research Institute, he said the required techniques to purify the plasma must be appropriate or else the plasma may cause infection.
