Kenya to use Convalescent plasma in combating the virus. What is Convalescent plasma?

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe. FILE

 

 

As Kenya now recording fewer numbers of coronavirus cases, the health ministry has resorted to the use of blood plasma.


Last week, the Health Ministry announced that the plasma would be taken from recovered coronavirus patients as a possible treatment against the disease that has killed over 500 in the country.


The plasma is considered to contain powerful antibodies that can help fight off the disease quicker.
 

The treatment method has already been piloted to patients in the United States and other nations, however, its effectiveness is still discussed by experts while some warn of serious consequences.

But what involves the use of Convalescent plasma?

Convalescent plasma is an experimental treatment that some doctors are using for people with critical coronavirus disease.


No drug has been confirmed to be safer and efficient for treating the naval virus.

People who have redeemed themselves from the disease have powerful antibodies "proteins the body uses to fight off infections" to the disease in their blood.


The blood from people who have recovered is called convalescent plasma. Plasma is the liquid portion of the blood.

Plasma is injected to the severely infected patients to boost immune systems to fight the virus.