Topic Teaching: Use of convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 and other diseases

Presented by:

Dr. Valérie Arsenault
Transfusion Medicine Physician Trainee
University of Toronto

Objectives:

1.    Summarize the literature about historical use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of severe viral infections.
2.    Review the published literature about use of convalescent plasma for severe COVID-19 patients.
3.    Describe the current trials about use of convalescent plasma for severe COVID-19 patients in Canada and other countries.

References:

1.    Casadevall A, Pirofski L. The convalescent sera option for containing COVID-19. J Clin Invest. 2020;2. doi:10.1172/jci138003.
2.    Zhang B, Liu S, Tan T, et al. Treatment with convalescent plasma for critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Chest. 2020. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2020.03.039.
3.    Shen C, Wang Z, Zhao F, et al. Treatment of 5 Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19 with Convalescent Plasma. JAMA - J Am Med Assoc. 2020;(29):1-8. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.4783.
4.    Tiberghien P, de Lambalerie X, Morel P, Gallian P, Lacombe K, Yazdanpanah Y. Collecting and evaluating convalescent plasma for COVID-19 treatment: why and how. Vox Sang. 2020:0-2. doi:10.1111/vox.12926.
5.    Duan K, Liu B, Li C, et al. Effectiveness of convalescent plasma therapy in severe COVID-19 patients. 2020:1-7. doi:10.1073/pnas.2004168117.
6.    Bloch EM, Shoham S, Casadevall A, et al. Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. J Clin Invest. 2020. doi:10.1172/JCI138745.
7.    Mair-Jenkins J, Saavedra-Campos M, Baillie JK, et al. The effectiveness of convalescent plasma and hyperimmune immunoglobulin for the treatment of severe acute respiratory infections of viral etiology: A systematic review and exploratory meta-analysis. J Infect Dis. 2015;211(1):80-90. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiu396.

Note: The session is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification program of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

To register for the LearnTransfusion series, send an email to learn.transfusion@blood.ca with  “Weekly Transfusion Medicine Seminars” in the subject line. Include your name and complete e-mail address in the body of the e-mail, and confirm that you would like to register for the LearnTransfusion series. You will then receive weekly email notifications of upcoming series events with details on how to join the webinars (e.g., call-in number and a link to register for the webinar).

The LearnTransfusion series is the seminar component of the Areas of Focused Competency (AFC)-Diploma Program in Transfusion Medicine. The series, organized by Canadian Blood Services is also open to all practitioners in the field of Transfusion Medicine. Through a series of regular webinars, trainees and practitioners are exposed to various scientific, technical and clinical aspects of transfusion medicine.