TEHRAN - Plasma therapy has so far reduced coronavirus deaths in Iran by 40 percent as experts in the country have discovered a life-saving method for those recovering from COVID-19.

Convalescent plasma therapy allows someone who has recovered from a coronavirus infection to donate their blood plasma to someone who is critically ill 

“We started plasma therapy some 40 days ago and to date, 300 persons have donated their blood plasma, and the result was a 40 percent decline in the number of deaths due to coronavirus,” said Dr. Hassan Abolqasemi who leads the plasma therapy project.

"The fact is that when we face a pandemic, no one is prepared [to deal with it], but the medical staff’s priority is to save the lives of critically ill patients," he explained, Mehr reported on Tuesday.

According to him, plasma therapy has proved to be effective in the treatment of other diseases such as SARS, MERS-CoV, and Ebola, however, international organizations had not expressed their points of view in this regard.

“The United States started working on plasma therapy three weeks after us. Later on, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and some other European countries started the work and requested us to share our experience.” 

“It is probable that we manage to produce an antibody exclusively,” he noted.

MG