Czech doctors may begin using plasma from recovered patients to treat COVID-19

Prague, April 3 (CTK) – Doctors in the Czech Republic could start using blood plasma from the recovered patients for the COVID-19 disease treatment as the State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL) has approved this, doctor Martin Balik, from Prague’s General Teaching Hospital (VFN), told reporters today.

“This is an option. It is freshly approved by the SUKL,” he said.

The exact procedure of the plasma administration is being prepared now, said Balik, the head doctor of the intensive care ward of the VFN’s Clinic of Anesthesiology, resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine.

He added that the VFN doctors had debated the plasma treatment with their colleagues from Prague’s Central Military Hospital on Thursday.

“We will have something to follow (in plasma therapy) in a week,” Balik said.

Along with setting the precise procedure, doctors will also have to decide whose plasma can be used, that is to choose the right people who have the antidotes and are willing to provide them, he expained.

Balik’s team has administered the remdesivir experimental drug, developed against Ebola by a team headed by Czech Tomas Cihlar in the US Gilead firm, to a COVID-19 patient in a serious condition at the VFN. He is recovering now.

Gilead has in the meantime stopped issuing permission for the experimental treatment and the new drug can only be used for pregnant women and children infected with the coronavirus for the time being. In Europe, the drug is provided from a storage facility in Basel, Switzerland.

The VFN is also administering drugs with hydroxychloroquine, which is efficient against malaria, to the COVID-19 patients. This substance helps prevent the virus spread in the body. Besides, doctors support the COVID-19 patients’ immunity and try some antibiotics.

Researchers in the world are working on the development of vaccination and medicines against COVID-19.