Plasma therapy has shown promising results in a trial involving 20 severely ill COVID-19 patients at hospitals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, according to a study published Monday in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Doctors injected 10 COVID-19 patients with plasma collected from recovered patients. They later reported that all previously ill patients showed improved symptoms — including reduced fever, cough, and shortness of breath — within three days. According to the paper, three recipients of the therapy had been discharged, while the remaining seven were recovering. The authors wrote that the clinical outcomes were significantly better compared with 10 other patients who were similarly sick but did not receive plasma therapy.

Plasma collected from recovered COVID-19 patients contains antibodies that could help sick patients fight off the coronavirus. Plasma therapy has been tested for treating SARS and H1N1 and shown promising results. (Image: Xinhua)