Abstract
The use of convalescent plasma (CP) could be an option for patients with severe COVID-19, especially in poor-resource countries where direct antiviral drugs are not commercially available. Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limits the CP administration for outpatients and inpatients with COVID-19 who are immunocompromised and only if high levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are confirmed in the CP unit. Although most of the randomized clinical trials failed to show a clear-cut benefit of CP in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19, other studies have shown that if given early in the course of the disease, it might be a useful therapeutic option. In this retrospective study, we demonstrated that early treatment (within 3 days of hospitalization) was significantly associated with reduced 28-day mortality compared with those patients treated beyond day 3. The results from our study add up to the scientific evidence on the use of CP as a relatively safe, cheap, and possibly effective therapy in certain patients suffering from severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.