Times Union: At Albany Area Hospitals, Plasma Therapy to Treat COVID-19 Picks Up Steam

The Times Union interviewed Jorge Cerda, M.D., chief of medicine at St. Peter’s Hospital, and Joseph Hunziker, a lab technician at St. Peter’s Hospital, for its story on convalescent plasma therapy. Hunziker contracted the virus in March. Once recovered, he made the decision to donate plasma in hopes of helping others recover.

From the article:

“It didn’t really hit me until I was driving away,” Hunziker said. “I thought of how I’d feel if it was someone in my family sick with this, and I felt very proud and humbled to be able to potentially help someone with a donation. It made me very emotional. It’s history in the making and I hope it does somebody good.”

Dr. Cerda discussed the potential benefits of plasma therapy, but also cautioned it’s too early to determine how effective it is.

“In general patients are getting better,” Cerda said. “But it is usually not a dramatic response because by the time they get here, they are awfully sick. In some cases it’s like the Lazarus effect — they revive and are no longer sick. But most of the time you have a horrendously sick patient who gets a little bit better one day, and a little bit better the next day.”

Click here to read the Times Union’s full article.