A self-screening tool for checking people if they are acceptable for donating their plasma with a hope of creating a treatment for the COVID-19 patients is being launched by Microsoft. The company is collaborating with a group and the tool is called CoVig-19 Plasma Alliance.
Science says that an infected patient would have the antibodies produced in them by the immune system and as s/he recovers they have those antibodies inside themselves.
They are trying hard for the sooner arrangement of such a collection so that the treatment for its cure arrives sooner and would help in determining if the therapy with convalescent plasma would actually work or not.
The donating of the plasma that is inclusive of the antibodies might help in speedy recovery of the patient. This treatment was used in treating diphtheria in 1890 and was also effective in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Plasma infusion is used in treating patients with SARS, measles, chickenpox.
Some info suggests that plasma infusions have also helped in the speedy recovery of COVID-19 patients. Further studies are continuing on plasma infusion and its effects.
The Plasma Alliance has a very different goal that is about creating a therapy called a polyclonal hyperimmune globulin (H-Ig).
The process is a very interesting one; it collects the multiple donations first, and then concentrates the antibodies in liquid form which would be then used by the researchers for further medication. Critical analysis of the therapy would be done before its final release.
Microsoft claims that the CoVIg-19 Plasma Bot would gather people online through web by asking a series of questions to see if the user is qualified enough to donate their plasma including their medicine intake, allergies and other medical conditions. Eligible ones would get the information on where to donate their plasma and other important information within an hour or so. This plan would be started by recruiting first in the US and then extending on to Europe.
The alliance comprises of Biotest, BPL, LFB, Octapharma, CSL Behring, Takeda and Microsoft with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation an adviser on the project.
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