Bluewater Health is taking part in a nationwide COVID-19 study aimed at helping infected individuals recover.
The Convalescent Plasma for COVID-19 Research (CONCOR) trial is a collaboration between the Canadian Transfusion Research Network, the McMaster Centre for Transfusion Research, Canadian Blood Services, Héma-Québec and academic partners across Canada.
Bluewater Health Chief of Staff Dr. Mike Haddad said the question they're trying to answer is "would using plasma from patients who already recovered from COVID-19 disease help patients who have it currently?"
"The presumption is that patients who had COVID disease and recovered from it would've developed antibodies to fight the virus, and those antibodies are present in their plasma and circulating," said Dr. Haddad. "So if you take out that plasma and give it to somebody else who has active virus, maybe it will speed up their recovery."
Dr. Haddad said there's been some conflicting data worldwide, so it's not very clear-cut if it's going to be helpful or not, adding the study will hopefully shine more light on the effectiveness of the process.
Dr. Michel Haddad, Chief of Professional Staff, Bluewater Health.
He said if it works, it'll be another way of treating the virus.
"There's different ways of treating this but there is no real cure for it yet, and a definitive way to deal with this, hopefully, is having an effective and safe vaccine."
Dr. Haddad said Bluewater Health is excited to be one of more than 40 hospitals involved in the study, noting there is a lot of expertise and interest at the local hospital.
"So when we were asked if we're interested, we were quite excited actually, and it's a long process -- there's a lot of stuff we have to do to be involved in a clinical trial, and everybody was so enthusiastic and wanted to help and be a part of this."
Dr. Haddad said if the process reduces the symptoms and reduces mortality, that would be a great benefit, adding that no medication is 100 per cent effective anyways.
Trial participants must be over 16 years of age, requiring oxygen, have been sick for less than 12 days, and their plasma must be compatible with donor plasma. Patients’ eligibility will be determined by the physician providing their in-hospital care and the research team. If selected, patients will be randomly assigned by the study’s research assistant to receive convalescent plasma or standard care, at a ratio of 2:1.
-With files from Josh Boyce
