One treatment that has shown some positive results in helping patients with COVID-19 is to receive plasma donated by people who have had the disease and recovered. The Community Blood Center can test for the antibody in the blood and is accepting convalescent plasma donations.
CBC vice-president Kristine Belanger details what the test does...
"Antibodies are naturally occurring in the blood stream and they help fight infections so if you have an infection, coronavirus or any type of virus or otherwise you create antibodies in your system. Our new test is going to be able to detect the coronavirus antibody in plasma..."
Belanger says convalescent plasma is plasma from a person who has recovered from the virus. She says until now to donate the person had to have been diagnosed with coronavirus. Belanger says they now can test people who haven't been diagnosed with the disease but had the symptoms and were quarantined....
"What we're asking people to do go online at communityblood.org, there is a form they can fill out and we will get in touch with them..."
Belanger says they're setting up this testing and anticipate it will begin in early June. Donors need to meet all blood donation criteria. She says the antibody testing is not done as a safety measure on the blood itself, but to identify the plasma that could help COVID-19 patients.
Community Blood Center has locations in Rhinelander, Woodruff and Merrill.
