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A large study of over 2000 COVID-19 patients has found that giving critically ill patients blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients did not significantly reduce deaths, or the need for intensive care support such as being put on a ventilator machine.

Pouch of convalescent plasma with a hospital environment visible in the background © NHSBT

However, the results followed a slightly different pattern for the 126 patients who had immune system deficiencies. This group of patients appeared to do slightly better with the convalescent plasma treatment, compared to the standard treatment, but the number of patients were too small to make a definitive statement.

The study, published in the journal JAMA, is part of the ongoing Randomized, Embedded, Multifactorial, Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP), a large international trial with over 300 trial centres in 21 countries.

Read the full story on the Radcliffe Department of Medicine website.