WSU Conducts Plasma Trial For Covid Treatment

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(CBS DETROIT) – Researchers at Wayne State University are studying the benefits of treating covid patients with the plasma of covid survivors in hopes that the antibodies in the fluid will help fight the virus.

Johns Hopkins University is coordinating a study with medical professionals across the country to test an old theory that dates back to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

Dr. James Paxton, a clinician at Detroit Receiving Hospital, says for over 100 years doctors have adopted the practice of treating ill patients with the plasma of recovered ones to study viral infections.

That same method will be applied to analyze Covid-19.

"So we know that some people who have a very mild covid case don't really developed much antibodies versus people who have severe cases develop a lot of antibodies. So what we do is we can actually test the blood and the plasma from a person who survived covid and see how many antibodies that they're body developed," said Paxton.

The randomized-control trial will administer two types of plasma: plasma from recovered covid patients and covid-free plasma.

"The virus we hope isn't mutating a lot between person one and person two and if that's true then the anti-bodies from the first person should help fight the virus with the second," said Paxton.

Wayne State University is one of 24 sites administering the trial in the country.

The study needs 1,100 people in total but roughly 40 volunteers are needed in Detroit.