Covid-19 update: Norton Healthcare starts testing blood plasma from recovered patients as treatment for those who are severely ill

By Al Cross Published April 10, 2020 HEALTH BUSINESS, HEALTH POLICY, YOUR HEALTH

As news develops in Kentucky about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item may be updated. Official state guidance is at https://kycovid19.ky.gov.

Norton Healthcare is the latest Kentucky hospital system testing treatment of covid-19 with plasma taken from blood donated by fully recovered patients. The treatment “is available only to patients who are severely ill from the disease,” Norton says. “Convalescent plasma has been used over the past several years to treat severe illnesses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza and Ebola virus.” The novel coronavirus is SARS-CoV-2.
For Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the pandemic recalls his battle as a toddler to beat polio, for which there was no vaccine until he was 12, reports Lisa Mascaro of The Associated Press.