General Hospital interested in treating coronavirus patients with blood plasma

Prim. mr. sc. med. dr. Ednan Drljević, head of the isolation ward for the treatment of COVID-19 positive patients at the General Hospital "Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš" and prim. mr. sc. med. dr. Mirza Begović, head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine, visited the Institute for Transfusion Medicine of the FBiH in this healthcare institution with the aim of creating conditions for optimal treatment of patients suffering from Covid-19 with convalescent plasma.

At the meeting, attended by the Director of the Institute, prim. dr. Jasminka Kurilić, the possibilities of the Institute to provide the necessary quantities of convalescent plasma from whole blood or separated using a cell separator (by plasmapheresis) for the needs of treating these patients in the mentioned isolation ward were discussed. Prim. dr. Jasminka Kurilić expressed the readiness of the Institute to start collecting convalescent plasma from donated units of whole blood as soon as approval is obtained from the competent institutions.

Dr. Drljević will inform the management of the General Hospital about the results of this meeting in order to seek consent from the competent institutions for the urgent collection and delivery of convalescent plasma, obtained from whole blood, to the hospital isolation ward.

At the same time, an official request will be submitted to the Director of the Institute to start collecting and delivering the first quantities of convalescent plasma (all ABO blood groups) to the General Hospital immediately upon obtaining the consent of the authorized institution. It is known that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of convalescent blood plasma, anti-Covid-19 plasma (plasma from voluntary blood donors who have successfully recovered from Covid-19) for the treatment of patients positive for Covid-19, under 80 years of age and not on a respirator.

Thus, in one of the most famous healthcare institutions in the world, the Mayo Clinic (USA), more than 34,000 patients had received this therapy by July 11 this year.