Andalusia receives aid from the European Commission to promote the donation of hyperimmune plasma in the fight against Covid19

The Andalusian Network of Transfusion Medicine will manage 1.8 million euros to promote, process, and analyze this blood component.

Andalusia will receive aid from the European Commission worth 1.8 million euros to promote, process, analyze and distribute hyperimmune plasma from people recovering from Covid-19, which will be useful for transfusing patients who have contracted the disease, mainly during the first days of his stay in the hospital. This amount is part of the 36 million euros that the European Commission will allocate to 24 projects in 14 member states of the European Union and the United Kingdom in which 150 transfusion centers or services will participate.

In Andalusia, the Andalusian Network of Transfusion Medicine (RAMTTC) will be in charge of promoting this project in its 8 transfusion, tissue and cell centers distributed throughout all the provinces of the Autonomous Community. The RAMTTC will also coordinate the Transfusion Centers of the Autonomous Communities of the Center, South, Levante and Canary Islands, including the Transfusion Center of the Armed Forces.

The funds received from the European Commission will be used for the acquisition of plasmapheresis equipment - cell separators to exclusively obtain plasma by returning the rest of the blood components to the donor; apheresis consumables; plasma freezers; equitation of rooms for obtaining plasma; donor stretchers; tests for determination of antibodies; training sessions for use of the equipment; and improvements to organizational systems in transfusion centers.

Hyperimmune plasma against COVID-19

Plasma from convalescent patients (CP), who have overcome COVID-19 and who have developed an antibody immune response against the coronavirus, is a possible option for the treatment of people with this disease. This strategy was previously used in the treatment of severe acute respiratory infections caused by other coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV (2003) and MERS (2012).

It is common to transfuse it in mild patients during their first days of hospital stay and when there is a suspicion that they could later be transferred to intensive care units. This blood component could also be sent to pharmaceutical laboratories to manufacture medications such as immunoglobulin, the so-called blood derivatives of human plasma.

Both therapeutic approaches, whether direct transfusion into patients or referral for drug manufacturing, are based on the collection of large quantities of convalescent plasma donated by recovered patients. Preliminary results are promising, with evidence of a very low incidence of adverse reactions and signs of efficacy.

To date, results suggest that early transfusion of donations with high concentrations of antibodies is most effective in reducing patient mortality. This means that as many donations as possible must be collected to ensure that antibody-rich plasmas can be provided to patients. Likewise, donations that are not suitable for transfusion, such as convalescent plasma, can be used for other transfusion indications and for the manufacture of other essential medicines.

There are several clinical trials underway on the use of hyperimmune plasma around the world, one of them in Andalusia, in which a good part of its public hospitals participate.