Egypt begins clinical trials of coronavirus blood plasma treatment: sources

Egypt has begun clinical trials involving transfusions of blood plasma from coronavirus survivors into patients in a bid to treat the illness, sources from the Egyptian health ministry told several news outlets on Sunday.

Plasma, the fluid in blood teeming with antibodies post-illness, has already proven effective according to some studies to treat infectious diseases, including Ebola and SARS.

Several countries worldwide, including the United States, China, France, the UAE, and India, have started clinical trials of the blood plasma treatment.

Similar plasma treatments have been used to treat various diseases such as measles, chickenpox and the 1918 influenza.

The Egyptian ministry has collected blood samples from two people who have recovered from the virus, the sources added.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported a Chinese study of ten patients with severe coronavirus symptoms who improved significantly, compared to similar patients who did not receive the blood plasma treatment.

Egypt has also changed two of the drugs used in its coronavirus treatment protocol, sources at the health ministry told Shorouk Newspaper on Sunday.

The ministry replaced chloroquine phosphate with chloroquine magnesium, as the former has showed side effects, the sources added, with disclosing further details.

Earlier in April, Egypt announced it had received samples of the Japanese antiviral flu drug Avigan, touted as a promising treatment of the coronavirus.