Convalescent Plasma Trial in COVID -19 Patients

Plasma therapy using convalescent plasma has been shown to be effective in severe acute respiratory syndrome, Ebola virus infection and in H1N1 influenza. More recently there has been a report of the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of 5 ventilated COVID-19 patients with the suggestion of expedited recovery as the patients improved 1 week after the transfusion. However, this was not a clinical trial and the patients were on other antiviral medication.; therefore, there is a need to undertake such a trial to see if deploying plasma with SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody has utility in managing patients infected with COVID-19 in respiratory distress. The objective of this pilot study is to compare plasma therapy using convalescent plasma with antibody against SARS-CoV-2 to usual supportive therapy in COVID-19 patients with pneumonia and hypoxia, and to determine if the clinical course is improved. The difference between groups will allow an effect size to be determined for a definitive clinical trial.