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> Another study — a 300-person controlled trial — will test serum from COVID-19 survivors. The bare-bones strategy, based on the idea that the antibodies one pe
by 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago
> Another study — a 300-person controlled trial — will test serum from COVID-19 survivors. The bare-bones strategy, based on the idea that the antibodies one person steadily builds up to fight a virus can rapidly help someone freshly infected to fight it off, has had modest success when used to treat other viruses in decades past
I’m surprised we don’t see this type of treatment more often. It might be worth it to set up infrastructure to do this type of treatment at scale everywhere, since it presumably works in most recoverable viral infections.
- londons_explore 7y agoIt has many of the same risks as cannibalism - there are lots of unknown viruses and proteins that normally don't get transferred from person to person, but could cause harm, and if you start distributing them widely, you're gonna have problems.
- blueprint 7y agocan the relevant antibodies be isolated?
- londons_explore 7y agoViruses and prions are so small it's pretty much impossible to be sure you have removed them all from some sample. Sure you can remove most, but you'll never get all of them.
- tim333 7y agoThis has been reported to work: >China National Biotec Group has been using this plasma, which contains highly potent antibodies, to treat more than 10 seriously ill patients since Feb 8, > It claimed that those receiving the treatment improved within 24 hours, with reduced inflammation and viral loads along with better oxygen levels in the blood. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-seeks-plasma-from-recovered-patients-as-coronavirus-treatment https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-seeks-plas...