FRAMINGHAM, MA – Two months after recovering from the coronavirus, Worcester resident Paul Latino, 28, found himself lying in a plasma donation room, as a phlebotomist inserted a needle into his arm.
His donation at the American Red Cross in Worcester last Wednesday was potentially life-saving. He was originally meant to be the first plasma donor for MetroWest Medical Center, where his mother, Denise Latino, is a nursing director, but he later learned that the plasma could be sent elsewhere because of needs at other health care centers.
Experts say people who have fully recovered from COVID-19 build antibodies in their plasma that can attack the virus. Called convalescent plasma, it can be transfused to patients who have serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections and are not building enough antibodies to fight the virus.
Teaming up with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the American Red Cross has developed a way to identify those people and collect their antibody-rich plasma. The hope is to make the still-experimental therapy more accessible to treating physicians and patients in need.
“Having to sit in a chair for 40 minutes to help sick patients seemed like a pretty easy task,” said Latino.
Latino, a Douglas firefighter, caught the coronavirus from another employee while at work. He experienced mild headaches, fevers and body aches for less than a week, before he was symptom-free with some rest and Tylenol. He then remained isolated for 14 days to ensure he did not spread the virus further.
“I got pretty lucky,” said Latino, saying he had no respiratory symptoms. “A lot of people have it worse.”
As a frontline health care worker combating the virus, Denise Latino called it scary when her son tested positive.
“I couldn’t see what he was going through ... I knew he was feeling better when he asked me for a McDonald’s chocolate shake,” said Denise Latino, laughing.
There are a number of requirements a person must meet in order to donate plasma. Donors must be at least 17 years old, weigh 110 pounds, be in good health, and feel generally well, even if they are being treated for a chronic condition. They must have previously been diagnosed with COVID-19, but be fully recovered and display no symptoms.
Paul Latino said he filled out a survey of additional questions before he donated.
Jungwon Yoon, an infectious disease specialist at MetroWest Medical Center, stressed that the technique of using plasma to treat the virus is still under consideration. A person must meet certain criteria to qualify to receive the plasma, including having a severe or immediately life-threatening case of COVID-19. That could include experiencing shortness of breath, respiratory failure, eptic shock, and multiple organ dysfunction or failure.
“Right now, there’s no proven treatment or vaccine for COVID-19. It’s a way to look at a pandemic without a treatment,” she said.
Paul Latino encourages anyone who has survived COVID-19 to consider donating plasma.
“It was really simple,” he said.
Zane Razzaq writes about education. Reach her at 508-626-3919 or zrazzaq@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.
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©2020 MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, Mass.