Two South Koreans recover from coronavirus after plasma therapy

seoul: Two elderly South Korean coronavirus patients recovered from severe pneumonia after being treated with plasma from survivors, researchers said Tuesday, offering hope in the face of the global pandemic.

Scientists have pointed to the potential benefits of plasma — a blood fluid — from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus enabling the body´s defences to attack it.

Since emerging in China in December, the coronavirus has killed almost 75,000 people as drugmakers worldwide race to develop a vaccine and treatments for the disease.

Plasma therapy could become “an alternative treatment for patients in critical condition who do not respond to antiviral drugs,” said Choi Jun-yong, a doctor and researcher at Severance Hospital in Seoul, where both patients were treated.

But large-scale clinical trials were needed to prove its effectiveness, he added. One of the two patients was a 71-year-old man with no underlying conditions who only improved when treated with plasma from a recovered patient in his 20s, along with steroids. He was initially given malaria drugs and a respirator for severe pneumonia.