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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.
Transfusion
|December 28, 2020
Summary
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.
