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Blood donors in England are now able to help with potentially life-saving plasma medicine.
The ban on the use of plasma from UK donors – introduced to protect against vCJD, the human form of ‘mad cow disease’ – has been lifted to increase stocks of immunoglobulins.
Each year, around 17,000 people need immunoglobulin therapy to fight cancer and rare immune diseases, and until now the UK has relied solely on imports.
Kes Earl, 24, said the treatment saved his family and hailed the change. Her son Trevor, now two years old, was born with neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia.
The antibodies in her mother’s blood attacked her platelets, putting her at risk of severe internal bleeding. He received urgent immunoglobulin treatment in neonatal intensive care, and Earl then received it herself during her second pregnancy to prevent the same from happening to her youngest son.
The first blood donations to be used in this way will be taken from Tuesday, with the approach being introduced across England over several months.
Ultimately, around 250,000 liters of plasma from around one million donated blood each year will be used to make the drug. The NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said plasma will boost drug supply, after pressures on supply were made worse by Covid-19.
“Plasma is the reason I have two healthy little boys keeping me on my toes,” Earl said. “I am so happy that plasma from blood donors is now being used for immunoglobulins, to ensure there is enough. “
The recipients of the drug were clinically vulnerable people who had protected themselves during the coronavirus pandemic, the NHSBT said.
Specific blood plasma donations started in April, but from Tuesday the first of England’s 770,000 blood donors will start contributing, with the first of those donations to be made at the Manchester Norfolk House blood donation center and by mobile blood donation teams covering Liverpool, Taunton and Bath.
Innovation Minister Lord Bethell called it “a historic day for the future of blood donation in the UK”.
While most of a person’s blood is plasma – the fluid that carries red blood cells, antibodies, and other components around the body – it is usually only red blood cells that are used in a blood transfusion. normal. Most of the leftover plasma – which contains infection-fighting antibodies – has not been used for treating patients and none could be used for this immunoglobulin-based drug until now. Red blood cells would continue to be used normally, so there would be no impact on the blood supply, the NHSBT said.
Gerry Gogarty, the organization’s plasma director for drugs, said the development would improve long-term supplies of immunoglobulin-based drugs, adding that each generous blood donation would help save lives even more.
“This is a huge new step forward for the NHS at large and the thousands of people who depend on immunoglobulins,” Gogarty said.
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