Johns Hopkins Receives $35M In Funding For COVID-19 Blood Plasma Trials
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Johns Hopkins researchers have received over $30 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for two nationwide clinical trials to test the effectiveness of a convalescent blood plasma outpatient treatment.
The treatment is a transfusion of a blood product from COVID-19 survivors that contains antibodies that may help the patient's immune system fight the virus, researchers say.
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Researchers say this will help determine whether convalescent blood plasma therapy can effectively be used to treat people in the early stage of COVID-19 illness or prevent the infection in those at high risk of exposure to the virus at their home or jobs.
Currently, there are no FDA-approved vaccines to prevent infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease, nor approved treatments for the illness in its earliest stage. There are also no outpatient therapies to prevent hospitalization or death.
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