TecSalud and NL open plasma donation centers to fight against COVID-19

TecSalud, in coordination with the Nuevo León Ministry of Health, aims to support critically ill COVID-19 patients who require plasma transfusions.

By CONECTA News Desk - 05/06/2020

The Nuevo León Ministry of Health and TecSalud have joined forces to open COVID-19 Plasma Donation Centers to treat patients who are critically ill with this disease.

This will be performed through the State Blood Transfusion Center, in collaboration with TecSalud‘s San José Hospital.

“The objective of the centers is to provide an effective and standardized process that allows critically ill patients from Nuevo León to be treated with COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

“The safety of donors and recipients will be guaranteed at all times through supervision of the project by the Nuevo León Ministry of Health,” said Manuel de la O Cavazos, Minister of Health for Nuevo León.

Donación de plasma.

This forms part of a clinical research protocol that has been followed in other countries as an option for treating critically ill patients.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently authorized the use of this treatment for patients suffering from COVID-19, as plasma can be effective against the virus.

In Mexico, TecSalud has submitted the protocol to the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS), which has been approved.

The treatment, which is also called “convalescent serum”, was initially used by doctors in China as one of the first treatments for the novel coronavirus.

HOW IS PLASMA DONATION ACHIEVED?

After someone recovers from COVID-19, the body generates antibodies that protect it against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This makes that person a candidate to donate a part of their blood known as plasma.

Plasma is the liquid part of blood that remains when the red blood cells, platelets and other components have been removed.

The amount that is donated does not affect the donor’s health and could potentially benefit COVID-19 patients.

The extraction process is called “plasmapheresis” and it can be carried out at the State Blood Transfusion Center and/or at the TecSalud COVID-19 Plasma Donation Center located at the San José Hospital.

This plasma is subjected to clinical analysis processes to check that it is free of other infectious agents, and that it contains the required number of antibodies.

“It is estimated that enough plasma will be obtained from each donor to treat between one and two patients who are currently fighting against COVID-19 and who have a poor prognosis,” said Servando Cardona, director of Clinical Research at TecSalud.

Plasma

Fernando Castilleja, director of Well-being and Prevention at TecSalud, said that with the opening of the COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Donation Centers, all work will be carried out in coordination with the Nuevo León Ministry of Health for the benefit of the community.

“This will happen not only in medical care and hospital services, but by going beyond this, by developing research protocols that can give good results for ending the pandemic,” he said.

Regarding the pilot research protocol using convalescent plasma (extracted from recovered patients in order to help seriously ill patients), Dr. Castilleja states that plasma has already been administered to 5 patients for whom all other possible strategies had been used and whose prognosis was not good.

“Of the 5 cases that we tested, 4 did very well,” he said.