Researchers are putting out the call for COVID-19 survivors across the country who can donate plasma to patients battling the disease, as a major clinical trial to study whether that could save lives gets Health Canada approval.

The trial, which will be overseen by doctors at several major universities and will involve 40 to 60 hospitals, cleared the hurdle at the end of last week.

Dr. Jeannie Callum, a professor at the University of Toronto and transfusion medicine specialist at Sunnybrook hospital, said they hope to have their first donor in front of them within a week.

That’s an “unbelievable” speed considering it normally takes two years just to plan a trial. “People are working every day, 12-hour days, to make this happen,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

Delphine Denis, spokesperson for Canadian Blood Services, said their approval for the collection of plasma is still “under review” and they are “expecting its approval in the next few days.” Its equivalent, Héma-Québec, will also be collecting donations.

Potential donors can fill out an online screening form at https://blood.ca/en/convalescentplasma and someone will get back to them about when and where to go.

Convalescent plasma therapy — the practice of putting the clear, straw-coloured part of blood from recovered patients into the very sick — is an old idea. It was first used to treat a German child with diphtheria in the late 1800s, and also helped save lives during the Spanish flu.

The plasma of survivors is full of antibodies that can bind to a virus and neutralize it, giving an immune boost. It’s been used successfully to treat SARS, Ebola, and many other viral infections.

But there’s not enough science to show if it works for COVID-19, because the disease is only a few months old. It has shown promise in two small Chinese studies. The Canadian one would be much bigger, and is being done in conjunction with similar studies in several countries including France, the U.K. and South Korea.

The team is looking for 800 donors and 1,200 patients. They will reassess at the halfway mark when they get to 600 recipients, to see how many they actually need, and are trying to complete the trial by year’s end.

To be eligible donors need to be under age 67, have tested positive for COVID-19, and be fully recovered with no symptoms for 28 days.

The study will start with men, Callum said, because they are “less complicated,” without the possibility of pregnancy.

“For women we have to do extra blood testing on them, and that will slow us down, so we’re ramping up just with the men, and then we’ll move to the women.”

Given the issues with access to testing, many people who’ve had coronavirus will not have a positive test result. Callum said they’d “love to include them” but just don’t have the time.

The plasma will be tested to determine the strength of the antibodies, which vary from person to person. Some plasma could be screened out if it doesn’t have strong enough antibodies.

While donors will volunteer, all patients at participating hospitals not on a ventilator will get screened for the study.

“For every three people in the trial, two will get the plasma and one will get regular care,” Callum said. Who gets what will be determined randomly.

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Once all of the global trials are completed, results can be compared with other countries.

Callum said there has already been a “heartwarming” response from potential donors, including entire families who got COVID-19, and groups of friends who got it on the same vacation. “Canadians are so nice.”