SARS-CoV-2 in Paraguay: Immune Response Characteristics

Abstract

The region has been severely affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, including Paraguay; with population of around 7MM, has about 80M cases, and 2M deaths, with increasing cases affecting healthcare resources acutely.A national response to mitigate the effects of the pandemic has been conducting therapeutic studies, including an open label therapeutic effectiveness study of the administration of convalescent plasma transfusion (CPT).The main objective of the CPT study is to evaluate the effectiveness of CPT in reducing mortality in hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19.Recipients of CPT had a mortality of 7.1% during hospitalization compared to the control which had a mortality of 25%. This difference was not seen once they were admitted to the ICU.The ultimate purpose of the proposed study is to gather critical information that will be relevant in better understanding the immune response and the designing of preventive and therapeutic interventions.