WHO Webinar on Collection of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma – World Health Organization

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the supply of blood and blood components in many countries through reduction in blood donations and disruption of routine practices in blood establishments. Blood services throughout the world must move quickly in response to the pandemic to maintain blood sufficiency for critical patient needs, ideally through development, implementation and activation of emergency response plans in cooperation with hospitals. Meanwhile, COVID-19 convalescent plasma can be made available on an experimental basis through local production provided that ethical and safety criteria are met for its preparation and use. Blood systems that provide COVID-19 convalescent plasma must ensure that blood establishments have sufficient capability to safely collect, process and store these special products in a quality-assured manner in compliance with WHO and other internationally recognized standards for plasma for transfusion.

WHO provided interim guidance on Maintaining a safe and adequate blood supply during the pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on 20 March 2020. More recently, on 10 July 2020, WHO published updated interim guidance entitled Guidance on maintaining a safe and adequate blood supply during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and on the collection of COVID-19 convalescent plasma. Compared with the earlier version, the updated interim guidance provides greater details on management of the blood supply and expanded recommendations on collection of COVID-19 convalescent plasma. The BTT organized webinar on 28 July 2020 will include a presentation on the Scientific rationale and clinical experience with experimental treatment with COVID-19 convalescent plasma and a summary of the 10 July 2020 WHO interim guidance.

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WHO Webinar on Collection of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma - World Health Organization