HEALTH | COVID-19 | PLASMA 

KAMPALA - The use of blood to treat COVID-19 patients has shown poor results, scientists have revealed.

Ugandan scientists in June last year commenced a study on the use of convalescent plasma (blood donated by people who have recovered from COVID-19), to ascertain whether it would be viable for treatment of the deadly disease.

In a project code named “COVIDIT” (COVID-19 Immune Therapy), the scientists under Makerere University’s centre of excellence for lung science, set out to study the feasibility, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 immune therapies.

Research in other countries had previously shown that treating COVID-19 patients with plasma from persons who have recovered from COVID-19 leads to faster recovery and prevents death.

However, speaking to New Vision, Dr Bruce Kirenga, the principal investigator, said the project which was concluded recently, pending publication, did not show promising results.

“The results are not so beneficial and it is unlikely to become the standard of care. This is because of its expensive nature and the benefits were minimal,” Kirenga said.

The team was able to draw samples from 200 donors and a total of 136 patients were treated, with each patient getting two doses.

Kirenga, however, said some of the patients who took part in the study did not recover, an implication that the results were poor.

Other partners in the study included Makerere University Lung Institute, Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS), Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda People’s Defence Forces Medical Services and the Joint Clinical Research Centre.

Plasma is the clear, straw coloured liquid portion of blood that contains antibodies.

Antibodies are substances (proteins) produced by the body’s defence (immune) system in response to the presence of a foreign substance (antigen) in the body.

Antibodies recognise and attach onto those antigens and neutralise them. Those that were eligible to donate blood were persons that had fully recovered and were between the ages of 15 and 65 years.

The eligible donors were also meant to weigh 55kgs and above — male or female. For the female, they had to people who have never been pregnant and generally, in good health.

Other options 

Kirenga said they are now exploring other options, including natural treatment and are also collaborating with international scientists for possible solutions.

President Yoweri Museveni in January this year, launched the start of the clinical trials of an indigenous homemade coronavirus drug, to ascertain its safety and efficacy in the treatment and management of the virus.

The drug, code named UBV01N, whose main ingredients are naturally growing organic plants found on the Ugandan soil, has already been found to be effective in curing other illnesses.

With a target number of 124 patients, the clinical trial will be conducted on COVID-19 patients at Mulago Hospital.

Museveni revealed that around March last year, a group of people from the Toro region approached him and said they had a cure that had been used in healing other ailments and could work in the treatment of COVID-19.

He said after speaking to some of the people who had used and got healed, he realised the medicine could have some antiviral properties.

He, therefore, tasked Dr Grace Nambatya Kyeyune, the director of research at the Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute under the Ministry of Health, to follow up on the product.

Nambatya has since teamed up with Dr Monica Musenero, the presidential advisor on epidemics and her team, at the Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics, to work on the product. 

Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said the trial will enrol patients with varied levels of disease severity, from mild to severe.

Why conduct clinical trials 

Clinical trials are conducted to test the effectiveness, safety and effi cacy of a drug in the treatment and management of a disease.

Usually, it is done in four phases, including giving the new medicine to a few people, who could either be healthy or volunteers and administering the medicine to a larger group of people to measure safety and side effects.

The third phase involves a randomised larger group, which can be divided into two or more groups. One group is given the new drug while the other, called the controlled group, is given the standard treatment.

This is aimed at measuring the effectiveness of the newer drug, compared to the alreadyin-use treatment. The last phase assesses the side effects of the drug, after it has been introduced to the market.