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Screening donors for COVID-19 convalescent plasma
Henry E Wang1, Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner2, Jeffrey Katz3
1Department of Emergency Medicine, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
Insights
Recruiting COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) donors requires extensive screening, yielding low donation rates from both volunteers and referred individuals. This highlights challenges in plasma donation efforts for pandemic preparedness.
Area of Science:
- Infectious Diseases
- Immunology
- Transfusion Medicine
Background:
- Convalescent plasma (CCP) is an established treatment for COVID-19.
- Limited data exist on the effectiveness of strategies for recruiting CCP donors.
- This study details experiences in engaging individuals recovered from COVID-19 for CCP donation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the outcomes of a COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) donor recruitment program.
- To evaluate the efficiency of different recruitment channels (volunteers vs. referred donors).
- To identify barriers and success rates in the CCP donation process.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of CCP donor recruitment across an 11-hospital health system.
- Categorization of donor candidates into "volunteers" (responding to outreach) and "referred" (identified from records).
- Tracking of candidates through initial screening, diagnostic testing, presentation for donation, and final donation completion.
Main Results:
- Out of 900 CCP donor candidates, 363 were volunteers and 537 were referred.
- Volunteer recruitment yielded 35 CCP donations (9.7% of initial contacts), while referred donors resulted in only one donation (0.2%).
- High exclusion rates were observed at multiple stages, particularly during initial interviews for referred donors (84.1%).
Conclusions:
- Screening a large number of potential donors resulted in a limited yield of CCP donations.
- The findings underscore significant challenges in CCP donor recruitment.
- These results have critical implications for future pandemic preparedness and blood product sourcing.
Background:
Convalescent plasma is used as a treatment for COVID-19. Only limited data describe the efforts to recruit COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) donors. We describe our experience engaging persons recovered from COVID-19 to donate CCP.
Study Design And Methods:
We performed a retrospective analysis of the CCP recruitment for an 11-hospital health system in Houston, Texas. We sought CCP donations from: a) "volunteers" responding to advertisements in social media, press releases, and websites and b) "referred" individuals directed to the program or identified from hospitalization records. We determined the proportions of donor candidates who passed initial telephone health screening, who qualified after diagnostic testing, who presented to the regional CCP donation center, and who completed CCP donation.
Results:
There were 900 CCP donor candidates, including 363 volunteers and 537 referred donors. Of 360 contacted volunteers, 186 (5.7%) were excluded by interview; 133 were referred for additional diagnostic screening, 97 completed donor antibody and antigen testing, and 87 were qualified for CCP donation, resulting in 35 CCP donations (9.7% of initial telephone contacts). Among 533 referred donors, 448 (84.1%) were excluded by interview, 71 were referred for additional screening, 48 completed donor antibody and antigen testing, and 40 were qualified for CCP donation, resulting in one CCP donation (0.2% of initial telephone contacts).
Conclusion:
In this community, screening of a high number of candidates yielded a limited number of CCP donations. These observations have important implications for CCP donor recruitment and community pandemic planning.
