Bibliographic information
Recommendation
For patients with non-severe COVID-19 (who do not meet criteria for severe or critical infection). The WHO recommends against administering convalescent plasma for treatment of COVID-19
Recommended against
Strong
Certainty of evidence
Moderate
Notes and Remarks
Practical Info The GDG made a str ong recommendation against using c onvalescent plasma for the treatment of patients with non-se vere COVID-19 and a r ecommendation against using c onvalescent plasma in those with se vere or critical COVID-19 outside the context of a clinical trial. Given this, w e will no t go into detail regarding the many practical issues related to c onvalescent plasma including but not limited to: identification and recruitment of potential donors, collection of plasma, storage and distribution o f plasma, and infusion of convalescent plasma into recipients.
Resources and other considerations Acceptability and feasibility The GDG no ted that convalescent plasma use is associa ted with significant resource requirements including identification of potential donors, testing o f donors to ensur e adequate titres of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, collection of donor plasma, storage of plasma, transportation of plasma to r ecipient location, and administration of plasma. T hese resources and feasibility issues are compounded f or those with non-se vere disease who ar e most o ften outpatients. Also, this pr ocess is costly and time-c onsuming. Given the number o f patients with non-se vere disease and the lo w event rate in this subgroup of patients, mobilizing the use o f convalescent plasma on a lar ge scale w ould be o f questionable f easibility. Although blood transfusion is ac ceptable to most, there is a subse t of the popula tion that will not accept allogenic blood transfusion. There are also regulatory challenges in most jurisdictions r elated to blood pr oduct transfusion.
Also Featured In
This recommendation also appears in the following guidelines:
Therapeutics and COVID-19. Living guideline. 7 December 2021
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, 14 January 2022.
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, 3 March 2022.
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, 22 April 2022.
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, 14 July 2022.
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, 16 September 2022.
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, 10 November 2023.
Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, August 2025