Coronavirus: What is convalescent plasma therapy and does it work?

Available for over a year

For months now, many people hospitalised with Covid-19 have been given convalescent plasma – donated blood serum from people who’ve already had the illness. Convalescent plasma therapy received a high profile boost in the USA in August when the Trump administration announced emergency use authorisation for the treatment. However there has been a lack of robust evidence for its efficacy against the coronavirus. Now the results of the first completed randomised clinical trial of the therapy have been published in the British Medical Journal. BBC health correspondent James Gallagher explains the idea behind the treatment and Dr Aparna Mukherjee of the India Council of Medical Research discusses the findings. (A medical researcher stands next to bags containing blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients, Credit: Getty Images.)