The former vice president said convalescent plasma came from people who had recovered from the disease.

“The community needs this [type of] blood donation, especially during the pandemic,” he said in a statement, as quoted by antaranews.com on Monday.

He said convalescent plasma was considered an effective COVID-19 treatment and could be used to treat critically ill patients.

The United States has authorized the emergency use of convalescent blood plasma as a treatment for COVID-19.

According to an AFP report in August, when a person has COVID-19, their body produces antibodies that fight the virus. These proteins float in plasma, the liquid component of blood.

The antibodies can be harvested from patients who have recovered and can be injected into the blood of others to help them fight the illness. 

Jusuf asked PMI branches in Central Sulawesi and East Java to collect such plasma.

In addition to encouraging regional PMI branches to collect the plasma, the organization is also collaborating with the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology to obtain the plasma.

Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology director Amin Soebandrio said convalescent plasma was taken from patients who had recovered two to four weeks prior. During that period, the body continues to produce antibodies to counter the virus.

Read also: Convalescent plasma: What you need to know

The World Health Organization has been cautious about endorsing the use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 treatment, saying evidence of its efficacy remained "low-quality", even as the United States authorized the emergency use of such treatments in August.

Research on convalescent plasma is ongoing, but some early signs have been encouraging.

In June, the Mayo Clinic analyzed the safety of plasma transfusions in a group of 20,000 COVID-19 patients. It found extremely low rates of side-effects such as heart failure, lung injury, allergic reaction and death.

"We concluded that the use of convalescent plasma was safe," Scott Wright, who led the study that was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, told AFP.

In Indonesia, the Health Ministry's Health Research and Development Agency (Litbangkes) began large-scale clinical trials of convalescent blood plasma therapy on COVID-19 patients in September.

Litbangkes acting head Slamet said Fatmawati General Hospital in South Jakarta; Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Bandung, West Java; Dr. Ramelan Navy Hospital in Surabaya; and Sidoarjo Regional General Hospital in East Java would host the clinical trials. He noted that 20 other hospitals would soon follow.

“We open the opportunity for interested hospitals to quickly contact Litbangkes so that we can put them on the list [for clinical trials],” Slamet said, as quoted by kompas.com.

He added that convalescent plasma had been shown to be effective in small studies on the treatment of certain infectious diseases, including Ebola and SARS. (jes)

 

Editor’s note: This article is part of a public campaign by the COVID-19 task force to raise people’s awareness about the pandemic.