A few weeks back, Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife Rita Wilson recovered from coronavirus. It was in early March when Tom and Rita were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The couple were on their visit to Australia. During the premises of their visit, the couple began to encounter symptoms of fatigue, chills, and slight fever. Developing suspicion that they might have got infected with the virus, the couple had themselves tested.
Hanks and his wife will donate blood for coronavirus treatment
The couple has now successfully recovered from COVID-19. Hanks and his wife are now trying to help doctors to combat the coronavirus. Hanks recently revealed that he and his wife are now donating blood to aid research on a potential coronavirus treatment.
Source: Variety
In an interview for the NPR show “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”, host Peter Sagal asked Hanks about life post-coronavirus. Hanks replied: “Well, a lot of the question is, ‘What now?’ You know?” Is there something we can do? And, in fact, we just found out that we do carry the antibodies.”
Hanks was then asked by guest host Peter Grosz, “Can we harvest your blood?.” In reply, Hanks said: “Yes.” He further added: “We have not only been approached, but we have also said, ‘Do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?’ And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine.”
Though it’s not exactly a “Hank-ccine,” Hanks’ donation could help patients who currently have few other treatment options.
Plasma therapy for COVID-19 could be helpful
Using plasma from the survivors of coronavirus is experimental. However, researchers hope this type of therapy can prove to be effective. The emphasis is to give sick patients antibody-rich blood plasma from recovered patients to help them fight off the virus.
According to Dr. Arturo Casadevall, the method was used during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic as well as during the 2003 SARS outbreak.
Source: BBC
Casadevall also added that more research needs to be done. However, plasma therapy shows promise, and history is on its side. One plasma donation could potentially help to treat nearly three infected patients.
As of 28 April, the worldwide tally of COVID-19 cases has now crossed 3 million confirmed cases, including nearly 990,000 in the U.S. According to John Hopkins University, the total number of recovery in global COVID-19 cases has been 895,000 while a total number of deaths has now crossed 211,000.
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