Israeli hospital trialling possible Covid-19 antibody treatment

Seriously ill patient who is intubated at Hadassah Medical Center will be given drug developed using plasma from patients who had the virus and recovered.

An Israeli hospital is trialling a potential antibody treatment for a seriously ill Covid-19 patient after other options failed to improve her condition.

The unnamed patient at Hadassah Medical Center, who is intubated, is being treated with an antibody concentrate developed using plasma from patients who had Covid-19 and recovered.

Hadassah’s Zeev Rotstein said while it was still too early to judge, the young woman – who has an underlying medical condition – had “reacted positively… We have our fingers crossed for the successful treatment of this patient”.

People who catch a virus develop special anti-virus proteins or antibodies in their blood plasma, which scientists say could help sick patients cope with the disease.

Hadassah has collected 40 litres of the plasma, after working with a Jewish court in Jerusalem which encouraged members of the strictly Orthodox community to donate their plasma after recovery.

In April a seriously ill 29-year old Charedi coronavirus patient at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital in Israel reportedly stabilised after receiving multiple doses of plasma from a donor who had recovered from coronavirus.

Patients were also treated in similar fashion at other locations including Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Ya’acov.