Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of Severe SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

Coronavirus infection has been declared by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. In addition to hemodynamic and ventilatory support in the intensive care unit, there is no treatment for COVID-19. Currently proposed treatments (chloroquine, antivirals, immunomodulators, among others) have low quality studies that do not prove efficacy. Blood or plasma transfusion from convalescent patients (patients who have overcome the disease by generating a competent immune response) has been prescribed for over 100 years. In the last 15 years, convalescent plasma has been studied for the treatment of severe acute respiratory infections of viral origin, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza, and influenza A (H1N1). Suppressing viremia is one of the possible explanations for the efficacy of convalescent plasma treatment. For the treatment of COVID-19, there are case series that show a clear improvement in severe patients after administration of convalescent plasma without significant adverse events. At the current crisis of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in which there are no pharmacological treatments that have proven to have any therapeutic effect, it is imperative to assess the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma transfusion in infected patients. This is an open, randomized clinical trial with patient allocation in a 2 :1 ratio, plasma: standard management, for a superiority hypothesis. The main objective of this study is to determine the efficacy of convalescent plasma for the treatment of severe COVID-19 infection in terms of decreased in-hospital mortality.