Health Equity Special Lecture: Arturo Casadevall, MD, MS, PhD | Convalescent Plasma Therapy for COVID-19
MAY 6, 2020 via Zoom: Presenter Arturo Casadevall, MD, MS, PhD, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair, W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He will share his expertise on, “Convalescent Plasma Therapy for COVID-19.”
Virtually attended by about 300 staff, faculty and students, with many more pending viewers who would’ve been in attendance if not for Zoom capacity restrictions!
Key Highlights
• Dr. Casadevall took viewers on a history tour of antibody therapy and immunity-transfer from 1891 to present day, seen in:
1901: Dr. Emil Adolf von Behring won the First Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his work on serum therapy with Diptheria which had groundbreaking results
1913: Serum therapy used in Meningococcal Meningitis with success
1930: Serum therapy used in Pneumococcal Pneumonia with success
1944: Osler’s Principles and Practice of Medicine – recommended serum therapy for many illnesses including anthrax, tetanus, and Shigella
• Driving motivation – Widespread need to share and highlight the importance of antibody therapy in terms of its use in combating COVID-19.
• China and Italy have shown proven effectiveness in using Convalescent Plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients.
• Great Strides in the Fight against COVID-19 – The FDA has allowed Expanded Access to Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of Patients with COVID-19 and Johns Hopkins University has granted permission for clinical trials of convalescent plasma in high risk individuals.
• How can institutions establish protocols and guidelines for the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, including donor criteria and plasma collection/storage times?
• Humanitarianism – Many communities have banded together and answered the call to fight the global fight:
With an extremely large demand and an even lower supply, communities such as the Orthodox Jewish Communities in New Rochelle and Brooklyn, NY, have banded together and account to over 10, 000 plasma donors.
• Dr. Casadevall left viewers with a renewed sense of hope and admiration for all those fighting to make sure that the current pandemic becomes an issue of the past.
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