IOWA CITY, Iowa (KWWL) - Doctors with University of Iowa Health Care began using convalescent plasma treatment on COVID-19 positive patients this week; something that's been used to treat diseases like polio and the H1N1 virus since the 1890s.

The treatment involves taking plasma donations, a liquid component of blood that carries cells throughout the body, from people who've beaten an illness and giving it to those still fighting it.

The hope is that neutralizing antibodies from the first person will fight the active infection in a sick person.

"If exposed again, the antibody will neutralize the virus so one doesn't become sick a second time," Dr. Brooks Jackson said, a pathologist and vice president of medical affairs for the university's hospitals and clinics.

Jackson said he and other doctors on the team aren't sure the method will yield results in patients fighting COVID-19, but they're very hopeful given its past successes.

"These were typically smaller studies --so, the sample size wasn't huge-- but the trends were all in the right direction," Jackson said when talking about convalescent plasma treatment for the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu.

The university is also one of more than 70 sites worldwide testing the drug Remdesivir, made by California drug company Gilead, to cure COVID-19.

UIHC had 27 patients with confirmed positive tests hospitalized Wednesday morning and wants to get each one on one of the two treatments by Friday.

Dr. Jackson says there is no control group for the plasma therapy (people only getting traditional, supportive care) and that would be a crucial step to getting it certified as a vaccine; which he says would take roughly a year.