BATTLE FOR WORLD | April 2, 2020: Russia's Novosibirsk science city is one of the most advanced in the world in many areas of research and have developed many technologies already in use, in secret and in public.

Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine have announced that they are ready to develop a cure for the coronavirus that is based on the blood of survivors cured of the virus.

"The experimental medicine for specific coronavirus infection therapy will be an enriched fraction of human blood antiviral immunoglobulins, extracted from plasma of patients who recovered from the coronavirus. Its development is expected to take 30 days," the Institute said, April 1.

And that part of the process involves taking some 500 ml of coronavirus survivor’s blood plasma to make the treatment cure. The medicine is administered intravenously, and will be completely sterile and non-pyrogenic.

On April 2 in the United States news was released after the acknowledgement by doctors in New York City, New York, followed by Houston, Texas; and Rochester, Minnesota, that the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) has approved plasma therapy on March 24 for novel coronavirus COVID-19 patients and that trials have started in the past few days.

Similar to the process announced by the Russians, the US experimental COVID-19 treatment uses convalescent plasma, which is plasma obtained from an individual who has recovered from the novel coronavirus.

The convalescent plasma contains antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and the doctors hope the trials show effectiveness against the infection.

After the approval by the FDA, Houston’s Methodist Hospital began recruiting plasma donors and has already administered its first convalescent plasma transfusion on March 28, according to USA Today. In the treatment trials to ascertain its effectiveness, William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said it’s worth trying during this time of crisis.

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