by Maayan
Jaffe-Hoffman June 24, 2020
Hadassah Medical Center has treated its
first COVID-19 patient
with a new “passive vaccine” that the hospital developed in conjunction with
Israeli biopharmaceutical firm Kamada. According to Hadassah head Zeev
Rotstein, “the patient reacted positively.”
He said: “She started to improve
hemodynamically… We have our fingers crossed for the successful treatment of
this patient.”
Though he could not share details about the
patient, he described her as a young woman suffering from several underlying
medical conditions. She has been hospitalized for weeks and is intubated. He
said other treatments have not shown any results.
The antibody (immunoglobulin or IgG)
concentrate was developed using plasma that Hadassah harvested from recovered
corona patients: those who had the disease and now test negative for the
virus.
Those who develop any virus, including the
novel coronavirus, develop special antivirus proteins or antibodies in their
plasma, which could therefore help sick patients, cope with the disease.
the disease, and your immune system creates antibodies to protect you.
Hadassah was able to collect 40 liters of
plasma – enough to produce serum for as many as 70 patients.
Although this is the first antibody concentrate
administered to a patient, several Israeli patients have been treated with
frozen plasma via transfusion. Back in April, a
29-year-old haredi coronavirus patient, who was in serious condition and
being treated at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, reportedly
stabilized after receiving multiple doses of plasma from a donor who recovered
from coronavirus, a spokesperson for the hospital told the Post.
Before being able to donate plasma, a patient
must wait 14 days from the time he or she was confirmed as being negative for
coronavirus via two separate swab tests.
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