Even as they raise an urgent cry for convalescent plasma donations, doctors say the treatment has limits

PEORIA – With COVID-19 hospitalizations skyrocketing, area health officials are asking recovered patients to donate plasma.

“There is a significant shortage of convalescent plasma and we need people to consider donating,” said Dr. Samer Sader, vice president and chief medical officer at UnityPoint Health. “So if they have had COVID, especially if they had significant symptoms, like severe cough, shortness of breath, lack of oxygen, or had to be in the hospital, the patients in those situation who donate plasma are the ones who give us the best chance to provide antibodies that we can give the patients that are ill.”

Convalescent plasma collected from recovered COVID-19 patients contains antibodies which combat the virus. Early in the pandemic, both UnityPoint Health — Methodist and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center began using the treatment after enrolling in a study run by Mayo Clinic. In August, data from that study led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue an emergency use authorization for the use of convalescent plasma in hospitalized patients. It may be an effective treatment, and the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks, they said. But since then, other studies have been published questioning the effectiveness of convalescent plasma for hospitalized patients.

“People who received plasma early on in infection seem to get more benefit than people who receive it later," said Dr. Douglas Kasper, an infectious disease physician with OSF HealthCare. "In general, the time frame was about three days after symptom onset, but there’s a large number of people who don’t come to the hospital three days after onset, and rightfully so, because they aren’t ill enough that they need to. So there are some number of people we don’t meet until they are further into their disease course and, at that point, the benefit of plasma is not sufficient to warrant giving it.”

This protocol is being further enforced by current shortages. Waking up on Monday to find the convalescent plasma supply completely depleted at Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, which supplies blood products to Peoria-area hospitals, chief medical officer Dr. Louis Katz issued a memo requesting that physicians carefully screen COVID-19 patients before using the product. Only patients within the first week of symptoms, those with co-morbities at high risk for severe illness and those who don’t require intensive care support should receive convalescent plasma, the memo said.

“I’ve been pushing that to our hospitals for a month or more,” he said during an interview from his rural Iowa home recently. “If you want maximum benefit, you really have to look at people very early in infection.”

Chillicothe resident Matt Briggs, 42, didn’t get terribly sick from COVID-19; he and his family were able to recover from the infection at home. But he believes he is producing enough COVID-19 antibodies to be helpful because he keeps getting called back to donate at the MVRBC donor center in Peoria.

“They told me they test it every time, and that they will let you know if my antibodies are low,” said Briggs during a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon. “They said the only way you get contacted is if your antibodies are low. They keep on booking me again, so that’s good news.”“I’ve always given blood. I have O positive blood, so I’ve always been pretty high in demand,” he said. “After I got diagnosed, with my wife working in the hospital, she said there really is a need for plasma right now. I know there have been different studies about whether or not plasma works, but I’m like ‘it doesn’t hurt.’” 

Briggs, who was diagnosed in late July, has donated multiple times – plasma can be donated every two weeks. He will soon make his seventh plasma donation.

The controversy surrounding convalescent plasma has not dimmed his desire to donate.

“It seems like every other week there’s a conflicting report… I figure that they can use it for something,” he said. “If it works even 5% of the time it’s great – that’s 5% more than if they didn’t have it.”

Another issue complicating the use of convalescent plasma is the fact that every person’s plasma is different. After COVID-19 infection, some people produce a lot of antibodies and some don't.

“The observation that’s been confirmed repeatedly over the last couple months is the people most likely to yield the most high quality plasma are the people who were sickest,” said Katz. “So, ideally, we want people who were hospitalized and reasonably ill, and are four weeks from recovery when they’ll have peak antibody level and be well enough to donate.”

Having said that, Katz doesn’t want to discourage people from donating. Anyone who has had COVID-19 can make an appointment with MVRBC. If their antibody levels don’t prove to be high enough, their donation will still be helpful. 

At this time of rising hospitalizations, all blood products are needed, said Kasper.

“Any person who has recovered from COVID-19 infection and is interested in donating blood and plasma, it’s a great honor for society to do that,” he said. “It is extremely beneficial for patients to consider donating any blood product at this time to help out the hospital systems.”

Leslie Renken can be reached at 270-8503 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter.com/LeslieRenken, and subscribe to her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.