DUBAI: Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced on Sunday that it will start using blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients to treat critical COVID-19 cases after the UAE announced that it will adopt this treatment method.
The treatment, known as convalescent plasma therapy, will be adopted sometime this week.
Dr. Younis Kazim, the CEO of Dubai Healthcare Corporation at the DHA, said that the authority has introduced the protocol for convalescent plasma therapy at hospitals in Dubai to prevent the spread of the virus.
He added that a number of specialized doctors from the DHA have put in place protocols for using convalescent plasma therapy based on international standards. They have also outlined rules and guidelines to specify who can make plasma donations and who is eligible to receive this treatment.
Kazim also said that the DHA took this step after international medical results found that once a person recovers from the virus, they develop antibodies that will stay in their blood to fight it.
Doctors believe the plasma of patients who have completely recovered from COVID-19 is rich in antibodies that can fight off the virus. They belive that when such plasma is injected into another person with the disease, it will recognize the virus as something to attack.
He added that the US Food and Drug Administration revealed that it was scientifically proven that the use of convalescent plasma therapy helped speed up the recovery of COVID-19 patients and decreased the number of days they spent in hospital.
Dubai Health Authority to start treating coronavirus patients with blood plasma
https://arab.news/gxtv3
Dubai Health Authority to start treating coronavirus patients with blood plasma
- Doctors believe the plasma of patients who have completely recovered from COVID-19 is rich in antibodies that can fight off the virus
- When such plasma is injected into another person with the disease, it will recognize the virus as something to attack
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.
The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
“The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight.
Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
