Egypt considers convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients

CAIRO - 20 April 2020: The Egyptian scientific committee that was formed by the Ministry of Health and Population and the Ministry of Higher Education will meet in the coming few days to consider convalescent plasma therapy as a treatment for the new coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, said a source at the Ministry of Health told Youm7 on Monday.

The ministry already took plasma samples from recovered patients, the source added, noting that Egypt is using various protocols of treatment for CAOVID-19 cases.

Egypt started treating 50 patients of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) with the Japanese antiviral drug Avigan, announced Mohamed Tag El-Deen, the Advisor for Health Affairs to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Friday.

Last week, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said the ministry has managed to communicate with the Japanese manufacturer of the antiviral drug Avigan to treat patients with coronavirus (COVID-19).

The drug, developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings Corp., has been stored in Japan as a treatment for influenza. Reports in China showed that the drug has been effective in treating COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Japan plans to provide Avigan for free to 20 countries hoping to use it to treat COVID-19 patients and will provide the United Nations Office for Project Services with a $1 million grant to buy and distribute the drug, according to Japan’s national daily The Mainichi.

Egypt recorded new 198 cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours, scaling up the total number of the infected cases to 3,333, announced Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed on Monday.

Meanwhile, the mortality increased to 250 deaths after registering new 11 deaths in 24 hours, he added, noting that only one of the newly-recorded cases is a foreigner.

The number of COVID-19 cases whose PCR tests turned from positive to negative increased to 1086, including 821 people who recovered from the virus.

All positive cases are placed under quarantine at isolation hospitals, the spokesman said.

Since mid-March, Egypt has taken certain strict measures to protect the public from the spread of coronavirus pandemic. The government has taken gradual steps in dealing with the coronavirus spread, starting with suspending schools and universities, as well as international flights.

Furthermore, a night-time curfew was imposed on March 24, 2020, while all restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, casinos, night clubs, bars, shopping centers (malls), and other local shops shut down completely until April 23.