The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center shared a video on its Facebook page featuring a recovered COVID-19 patient named Jose.
Jose was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early March. He described having flu-like symptoms: fever and body aches that came with a lost sense of smell and taste.
The Center for Disease Control describes those as symptoms of COVID-19, as well as cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, and a sore throat.
After Jose recovered, he took part in a treatment option to help others, convalescent plasma therapy. It's a process of using plasma from recently-recovered COVID-19 patients. Blood plasma contains antibodies, the unique proteins that the body makes to fight specific foreign substances.
"Anything they can do to make someone feel better," said Jose.
The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center is collecting plasma from former COVID-19 patients. Find details on how you can become a donor, here.
Here are the guidelines that the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center have released for donation:
To provide convalescent plasma, donors must be fully recovered from their COVID-19 infection and must meet all standard eligibility criteria for blood donation. Plasma will only be collected from donors with laboratory-confirmed tests showing they had a COVID-19 infection and must be at least 14 days from the last date they experienced symptoms.
Each donor must be referred to the Blood Center by their physician, who must provide certain information to qualify the donor. A donor must meet standard criteria for donor eligibility. Donors will be scheduled for a plasma donation at a MVRBC Donor Center. Potential donors are asked to contact their physician to make a referral as a COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor.
