COVID-19 recoveries in Qatar ‘higher’ than official figure of 510

Tribune News NetworkDohaThe COVID-19 recoveries in Qatar are likely to be “higher” than the official figure of 510, a top doctor has said, expressing optimism about the emerging plasma treatment in keeping the epidemic in check.Dr Muna al Maslamani, the Medical Director at the Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC), said that out of the 5,008 people who have contracted the virus so far in Qatar, only 510 have officially recovered, but more are likely to convalesce soon.“From the perspective of the medical staff, we are aware that the cases of recovery are much more than 510... We follow daily cases of patients and we know their health status in detail,” she noted.The doctor said the plasma treatment, which uses virus-neutralising antibodies found in the blood of recovered people to treat infected patients, was showing encouraging results.The plasma treatment was successful in improving the condition in 70 percent of coronavirus (COVID-19) patients in an experiment conducted in China’s Wuhan, Dr Muna said.“A limited experiment was conducted in Wuhan on 10 patients who were severely infected and the average age of the patients was 53 years. They had chronic diseases and were placed on ventilators. However, within three days of plasma treatment, most patients showed signs of improvement. They were out of ventilators. There was an improvement in oxygen levels and lymphocytes, as well as a decrease in the levels of C-reactive protein,” Dr Muna told Qatar TV.She said there was an improvement in chest X-ray images and the virus disappeared from the blood of some other patients.Dr Muna expressed optimism about the results of plasma treatment during the coming period.“We have started using plasma treatment at CDC. The donor can donate twice a week,” she said.