Pivotal Role of Convalescent Plasma in Managing Emerging Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Infectious diseases remain one of the top 10 global health threats as announced by the World Health Organization. The emergence of new pathogens for which there is no effective treatment has redrawn the attention to the usefulness of convalescent plasma. Indeed, convalescent plasma can be an alternate and fast therapeutic option in outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Chikungunya, Ebola and Zika. The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic caused by SARS‐CoV‐2 has prompted not only a search for effective anti‐viral treatment and spread control measures, but also a reconsideration of the use of convalescent plasma for COVID‐19 treatment.