'An Emergency Need': Doctors Issue Call For Help To Fight Shrinking Supply Of Convalescent Plasma
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Nearly 5,000 Pennsylvanians are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
For many patients, doctors look to use convalescent plasma as a weapon to fight the virus. But the supply can't keep up with the demand.
"Blood donors are really special people," said Kristen Lane, the communications manager at Vitalant.
The donors kept coming on Monday. Lane said holidays always bring a crowd.
"If you think about it, you're giving up your time, you're using your gas to drive to your blood donation and you're letting somebody give you a little poke in the arm all to save someone's life," said Lane.
Nearly 50 people stop by the Vitalant Donation Center on McKnight Road each day to donate platelets, full blood and convalescent plasma — the special yellow liquid that is part of recovered coronavirus patients' blood.
"You can look at a transfusion of COVID plasma as a weapon in the fight against COVID," said Lane.
A weapon in short supply, both nationally and in Pittsburgh. The antibodies found in recovered coronavirus patients' convalescent plasma can help other sick patients fight the virus. Both UMPC and AHN describe the need as "an emergency need."
"With the amount of cases that there are local with the surge that we had really since Thanksgiving, we're using just as many units as we're collecting," said Dr. Tom Walsh, an infectious disease physician with AHN.
"If you look at the entire Pittsburgh region, almost 1,000 patients have been treated with convalescent plasma up to this point," said Dr. John McDyer, a professor of medicine at UPMC.
But these doctors want to hike that number. That's why Dr. McDyer and Dr. Walsh teamed up with Vitalant nearly eight months ago. They're unified over one goal: finding more donors.
"I would put that at a nine or 10 on a scale of one to 10 to try to encourage individuals," said Dr. McDyer. "Because all of the treatments for COVID seem to be indicating if you hit it early with therapies, including convalescent plasma, there may be more of a benefit."
There's one key requirement in a good convalescent plasma donor, according to Dr. Walsh.
"It's somebody who has recovered from their illness for at least a month, so we want to make sure they would not be potentially infectious any longer," said Dr. Walsh.
Depending on if you use doctors at UPMC or AHN, each hospital system uses a specific email address for interested donors.
For UPMC, send an email to C2P3@upmc.edu or click here. For AHN, send an email to C2P3@ahn.org or click here.
Remember to provide your full name and phone number.