Two non-drug, non-vaccine therapies have been showing promise in the treatment of COVID-19. IVC and Convalescent Plasma Therapy; Big Pharma won’t get rich from either.
i) Intravenous vitamin C (IVC) and Covid-19
Dr. Enqian Mao is chief of the emergency medicine department at Ruijin Hospital, a major hospital in Shanghai. Dr. Mao is also a member of the Senior Expert Team at the Shanghai Public Health Center, where all Covid-19 patients have been treated.
Dr. Mao also co-authored the Shanghhai Guidelines for the Treatment of Covid-19 Infection, an official document endorsed by the Shanghai Medical Association and the Shanghai city government.
As of March 17th, 2020. a total of 358 serious or critically ill Covid-19 patients were treated in Shanghai Public Health Center. Moderate to severe cases were treated with high dose IVC in the range of 10,000 mg-20,000 mg per day, depending upon pulmonary status.
All patients who received IVC improved and there was no mortality. There were also no recorded side-effects. (Report from Orthomolecular Medicine News Service -1)
ii) Plasma Therapy
Britain quite probably leads the World in Plasma Technology, yet despite this there seems little formal Government interest in its use with COVID-19.
In previous ‘pandemics’ such as Spanish flu, even with poor technology, patients were given recovered patient plasma to good effect.
So, the idea is not new and our knowledge has expanded enormously. It thus seems odd that doctors are encouraging its trial with COVID-19, but Governments like the UK and USA do not appear interested.
- What is ‘Convalescent’ Plasma therapy?
Plasma is the pale yellow liquid above the thick red liquid, when blood is spun through a centrifuge.
Plasma forms just over half of the volume of your blood – it is the liquid part. It contains proteins such as fibrinogen and albumin. It also contains anti-bodies.
In New York and Houston, Doctors have started giving COVID patients plasma from recovered patients, complete with their antibodies. Also called Convalescent Plasma Therapy, Mount Sinai Doctors are studying whether it works.
This follows a report from China published March 27 th in JAMA(2) that in a trial, led by Professor Lei Liu on 5 critical patients in Shenzhen had seen full recovery across a 12-day period. Other similar trials in China have found the same results. Following a larger trial in Wuhan (reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 3), Convalescent Plasma Therapy was described as a ‘promising rescue operation’
Formal tests by Britain’s NHS are being contemplated, and several Doctors have already started their own trials.
Go to: COVID-19 and Chloroquine
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References
- http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n.18shtml
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763983?guestAccessKey=e6a6289d-1876-45e5-bff9-86797297b79d&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=032720
- https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/02/2004168117
