Published Tuesday, June 2, 2020 

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

In order to advance the development of treatment for patients with covid-19, scientists who are working on the production of treatment against the virus need more people recovered from the infection to donate their plasma at the National Blood Bank, announced the Clodomiro Picado Research Institute of the University of Costa Rica.

The Institute's goal is to collect 25 liters of donated blood to start purifying the antibodies and to produce the first batch of the new drug.

According to Román Macaya-Hayes, executive president of Social Security as of May 25, only 25 survivors of the virus had come to donate blood.

"The staff of the National Blood Bank and the blood banks of Social Security hospitals are doing an extraordinary job in collecting this plasma," said Alberto Alape Girón, director of the Institute. "However, we need more patients to donate, to complete the 25 liters necessary to start the production of the medicine as soon as possible.”

To donate, volunteers must first call the National Blood Bank at 506-8992-2151 and request an appointment.

According to Costa Rican scientists, three different strategies are currently being worked on to develop a treatment for covid-19.

The first strategy has been applied by Social Security. It consists of directly administering the plasma extracted from patients recovered from covid-19 to the sick.

"The patient is a 37-year-old woman who started having problems of all kinds," Macaya said. "We take plasma from an already recovered patient and infuse it into a new patient who is active with the virus, to try to neutralize the spread of the virus in that patient's body.”

The second and third type of treatment is the one being developed at the Institute.


The second is to create a drug with human immunoglobulins purified from the plasma of people who recovered from the infection.



The third strategy is also to create a treatment but using purified equine immunoglobulins from the plasma of horses immunized with non-infectious covid-19 virus proteins.

In the case of the treatments developed at the Institute, there is the advantage of using purified antibodies from the plasma of convalescent patients. Then a standardized drug is created that will allow all severe covid-19 sufferers to receive the same treatment.

If more people recovered from covid-19 donate their plasma, the Institute will produce a formula that will be sent for analysis to George Mason University in Virginia, U.S.A.

Culture cells, the drug's ability to neutralize the virus and thus have greater certainty of its effectiveness, will be analyzed in a specialized laboratory at that University, the Institute said in its statement.

Also, the Institute announced that it is in the process of obtaining the required permits for the production of the drug and its clinical use in hospitals. This permission would be being authorized in the next few days by the Ministry of Health.


Regarding the development of covid-19 in the country, the health ministry reported on Monday afternoon 398 active cases. Active patients are those who currently have the virus.

Authorities provided the following statistics of the evolution of the virus in the country:

• Of the 1,084 infected since the first case was detected in March, 676 coronavirus patients have fully recovered. That is equal to 62% of total recovered patients.

• The ages of those affected range from a 5-day old newborn to an 89-year-old, with an average age of 36.

Authorities reported the case of a newborn boy of 5 days was infected with covid-19. On May 28, authorities reported a 3-month-old baby tested positive for covid-19. A 6-month-old baby was infected with the virus on May 14. All children are attended at the Children's Hospital.

• 18 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 13 are in recovery rooms and 5 have been reported in an Intensive Care Unit, ICU, with delicate health conditions. Most of the infected patients are quarantined in their homes.

• 212 foreigners infected, of these 27 entered the country unauthorized and are jailed in the facilities of the Professional Migration Police in Heredia Province.

• 46 foreigners working as truck drivers transporting merchandise were denied border entry because they tested positive for covid-19.

• 18,431 people have been ruled out.

• 26,974 medical covid-19 tests have been made.

• 10 deaths have been reported from patients infected with covid-19 since March.





The updated number of total patients in each district can be reached at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.

As of Monday night, the pandemic has killed 375,994 patients worldwide according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.





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Should authorities develop a strategy to obtain the commitment by patients recovered from covid-19 to donate their blood?  We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com