MURRAY — Days after performing its first COVID-19 plasma transfusion, Intermountain Healthcare doctors are asking for those who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate plasma as a part of a new federal program that the Utah-based health care provider is participating in.

The program, sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, is seeking to find out if that plasma can help current patients. It’s among several experimental therapies, such as plasma transfusion, that may offer doctors and researchers more options to especially help those hospitalized by the disease.

The premise behind the treatment idea comes from the knowledge of how an immune system fights off viruses. When a virus attacks a person’s immune system, it responds by making antibodies to fight that virus, said Dr. Brandon Webb, Intermountain Healthcare’s infectious disease specialist.

"Those antibodies are not present in the population when there’s a new disease like COVID-19, so most people don’t have antibodies that give them protection against this new virus," Webb explained.

Red Cross officials said they are seeking anyone above 18 who has recovered from a confirmed case of COVID-19 to donate plasma, as long as they also fit the standard criteria for donating blood. Dr. Walter Kelley, a divisional medical officer for the Red Cross, defined recovery as anyone who had a confirmed case of COVID-19 and hasn’t experienced symptoms for at least 28 days.

The Red Cross would accept plasma from individuals who have been recovered for at least 14 days in "limited circumstances," he added.

"Only individuals who have documentation of a test result will be able to participate," Kelley said. "The Red Cross is coordinating this across the country and we’re collecting this here in Utah."

Testing plasma transfusions on COVID-19 patients

Once donated, that plasma goes to Intermountain Health Center— or other hospitals in the country — for doctors to try as a possible COVID-19 treatment. So far, about 200 transfusions have happened across the U.S., said Dr. Daanish Hoda, director of the Intermountain Healthcare’s hematologic malignancy department. Patients Intermountain Healthcare are testing the procedure and are selected based on blood type and severity of the illness, Webb added.

Doctors are hopeful to find results that show that plasma transfusions can help those hospitalized. That's still an unknown since the antibodies can't fix tissue damage already caused by the virus, Hoda pointed out.

"We give it to the people who the physicians feel like they need it," he said. "At the end of it, that there is a little bit of a pause in this, then we'll go back and look at the data and see if we can better pin down, one, whether patients benefit from it and, two, which patient would benefit from it."

The call for plasma Tuesday comes after Utah's first plasma transfusion on a COVID-19 patient that occurred on Friday. Cynthia Lemus, 24, of Magna, received the plasma treatment, her husband, Moises Lemus, told KSL TV on Monday. The plasma for that procedure was sent from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, according to Hoda.

Related:

Magna woman first Utahn to receive plasma from COVID-19 survivor

A Utah woman who was diagnosed with COVID-19 became the first patient in the state to receive plasma from someone who recovered from the virus.

Webb didn’t specifically identify the Lemus by name but said the patient remains in critical condition, although they had made improvements over the past 48 hours.

"We can’t comment to what degree plasma may have contributed to that improvement, but we’re delighted to see the improvement with that patient," Webb said.

How those who beat COVID-19 can donate

The Utah Department of Health is starting to provide a better picture of who has recovered from COVID-19 since the pandemic reached the state last month. As of Tuesday, an estimated 888 Utahns have recovered from the disease of Utah’s 3,296 confirmed cases. That number is calculated by looking at positive cases first reported three weeks prior with deaths subtracted, according to the state health department. So if someone tested positive on March 31 and didn’t die from the disease, the department listed that case as an estimated recovery Tuesday.

As more people recover, the number of people with possible antibodies to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 also increases. Much like blood donation, plasma donation must match between a donor and recipient. With more people recovering, a greater pool of types will be available, Kelley explained.

As that pool grows, plasma treatment may become available for other Utah hospitals, Webb added.

Anyone who fits the criteria interested in donating their plasma for current COVID-19 patients is encouraged to visit the Red Cross’s website and fill out a form instead of visiting a traditional testing site, Kelley said. The organization will contact any individual who fills out the form for further instructions.

"Each donor can give up to four units of plasma, so that would be a big help," Hoda said. "Right now, we’re picking a donor for a particular patient and that is. Soon, we’ll have a huge pool of patients and donors that we can get for the patients and we don’t have to direct one donor for a patient sort of thing."

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