NewsCoronavirus

Actions

Recovered from COVID-19? Your plasma could be key to develop treatment for ill patients

Microsoft introduces 'plasma bot' to encourage donations
Recovered from COVID-19? Your plasma could be key to develop treatment for ill patients
Posted at 2:11 PM, Apr 20, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-20 14:11:24-04

Have you recovered from COVID-19? If so, your plasma might be the key to possibly treating patients fighting the virus.

According to the Mayo Clinic , anyone who's survived COVID-19 their plasma now contains COVID-19 antibodies, which is called convalescent plasma.

In hopes for people donate their plasma to help develop a treatment for ill patients, the world's leading plasma companies have formed the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance.

To encourage people to donate, Microsoft created a chatbot called "plasmabot."

"It is a self-screening tool that anyone can use to see if they qualify to donate their plasma," Microsoft said in blog post. "As we did with the CDC Coronavirus Self-Checker bot and more than 1,300 other COVID-19 bots around the world, we've followed standard protocols to help guide individuals through the qualification and education process."

To see if you qualify, you can fill out a questionnaire on the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance website.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated that though they have not approved convalescent plasma for use, they are regulating it as an investigational product.

If you have not had COVID-19, but would like to help, the American Red Cross said healthy individuals can donate blood.