A 100-year-old coronavirus patient suffering from Alzheimer’s has recovered after being treated with blood donated by former patients.
The Chinese centenarian, known by his surname Wang, has other underlying health conditions including high blood pressure and heart failure, according to Chinese media.
He was among more than 80 patients who were discharged last Saturday from Hubei Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital in Wuhan.
A 100-year-old coronavirus patient with Alzheimer’s from China has recovered after being treated with blood from former patients. He is seen being escorted by the medical workers
The centenarian, known by his surname Wang, had underlying health conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure and heart failure, according to Chinese media
Mr Wang received two therapy sessions using blood donated by recovered patients, said Cai Chen, a doctor from the hospital.
‘Considering the patient was very old and he had a relatively weak immune system, we decided to use recovered coronavirus patient’s blood plasma as the main treatment,’ Cai Chen told the press.
Scientists believe the treatment works, in theory, by putting disease-fighting proteins from recovered patients into people still battling the illness.
The sick patients’ bodies can then use these proteins – called antibodies – as if they were there own, instead of having to make them from scratch.
The centenarian, was among the other 80 coronavirus patients who had been discharged last Saturday from Hubei Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province
Mr Wang received two therapies using blood donated by recovered patients, said Cai Chen, a doctor from the hospital. He is pictured here being treated by a group of medical workers
Chinese hospitals have said they are using the therapy already but only on their patients – there is no mass-produced drug or supply of it.
The former patient, who had just celebrated his 100th birthday, was diagnosed with the coronavirus on February 24.
He was unconscious when he was admitted to the hospital, Zeng Li, director of the hospital’s infection department, told the press.
‘The fact that we used anti-virus blood serum [from recovered patients] to cure the centenarian is going to boost the confidence of other patients,’ Zeng Li told the state broadcaster CCTV.
Mr Wang’s condition gradually improved after receiving two-week treatment from a designated team of medical experts.
Chinese health experts have warned the elderly and people with underlying health conditions are at high risk of catching the coronavirus.
As of Saturday, the Hubei hospital alone had admitted 552 patients over the age of 60, including 149 have recovered, according to reports.
Mr Wang’s condition gradually improved after receiving two-week treatment from a designated team of medical experts. The picture shows him in the ambulance car last Saturday
Chinese health experts have warned the elderly and people with underlying health conditions are at high risk of catching the coronavirus. A group of medics are seen escorting Mr Wang
A drug-maker in Japan has been developing a drug using parts of the immune system taken from people who have caught the virus and recovered from it.
It has been used to tackle Ebola in the past but it could take more than one recovered patient to treat a single sick person – so will not be used for everyone.
News of the development comes as a health official working in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak, said that if given the chance again they would have pushed to send more patients into intensive care sooner in their illness.
Doctors at a makeshift hospital in a sports stadium in Wuhan, China, are pictured examining lung scans of a patient with the novel coronavirus, which is currently untreatable
Scientists around the world are working on a vaccine to protect against the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Pictured: A lab at Russia’s Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Moscow)
And scientists have said they are getting close to starting human trials of vaccines, but a UK Government official said they would not be ready during this outbreak.
The novel coronavirus, has infected over 114,000 people worldwide, including at least 4,062 deaths.
China has recently seen a sharp drop in its new cases as Wuhan closes its last makeshift hospital built during the outbreak today.
The novel coronavirus, has infected over 114,000 people worldwide, including 4,062 deaths
But the UK could be heading straight for a coronavirus like the one which has crippled Italy , experts have warned. A waiter is pictured wearing a face mask at a cafe in Milan, Italy
But the UK could be heading straight for a coronavirus like the one which has crippled Italy, experts have warned.
Italy last night put all of its 60million people into lockdown and banned movement between cities in a drastic bid to stop COVID-19.
The UK is following the same trajectory, one scientist said, and could end up in a similar situation a few weeks down the line.
Images have emerged of coronavirus patients in intensive care in the Cremona Hospital in northern Italy – they are kept laying face down because it may improve the function of a ventilator, which helps failing lungs to work, by reducing the pressure on the lungs
There are currently 321 confirmed cases in the UK and five people have died. More infections are expected to be declared later today and throughout the week.
Since February 21, the number of cases in Italy has rocketed from just three to at least 9,172, while in the UK it rose from nine to 321.