ABSTRACT
Convalescent plasma therapy (CP) has long been used to prevent and treat various infectious diseases before COVID-19 such as SARS, MERS, and H1N1. Because the viral and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 share the similarities between SARS and MERS, CP treatment could be a promising treatment option to save COVID-19. With only low quality medical evidence, but massive media support and a very significant public demand for the use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19, we are now faced with an ethical dilemma. Therefore, this paper uses a structured analysis that focuses on the preferred reporting items for a systematic review of ethical issues regarding the use of Convalescent Plasma Therapy for COVID-19. The use of convalescent plasma must meet the ethical principles of autonomy; such as voluntary, informed consent, and confidentiality. Consideration of the risk-benefit ratio for potential donor recipients also needs to be considered in order to meet the beneficence and non-maleficence principles. The principle of justice also needs to be applied both to donors, donor recipients and health workers, such as determining the priority of donor recipients, due to the increasing demand for convalescent plasma amid the limited circumstances of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 who voluntarily donate.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/therapy , SARS-CoV-2 , Adolescent , Adult , Altruism , Blood Donors , COVID-19/prevention & control , Child , Confidentiality , Donor Selection/ethics , Donor Selection/standards , Health Personnel , Humans , Immunization, Passive/ethics , Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional/prevention & control , Informed Consent , Personal Autonomy , Personal Protective Equipment , Risk Assessment , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Social Justice , Volunteers , COVID-19 SerotherapyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: WHO declared the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 outbreaks as a worldwide pandemic in March 2020. More than 1,500,000 confirmed cases have been diagnosed in more than 130 countries and regions, estimated to cause 93,000 deaths so far recorded on April 10, 2020. There is no vaccine or antiviral treatment for coronavirus. METHODS: The literature sources from the research were obtained by searching for national and international journals. The journal is indexed in Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, e-books, and others. Five journals were obtained, including a literature review, systematic review, and randomized controlled trials (RCT) discussing the use of dexamethasone in COVID-19 therapy, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and severe acute respiratory syndrome. RESULTS: A study from Oxford University compared 2100 COVID-19 patients who received low and moderate potential dexamethasone at a dose of 6 mg/day for 10 days with 4300 COVID-19 patients who only received standard treatment for coronavirus infection. The results obtained in patients using ventilator mortality decreased from 40% to 28%, and patients using oxygen, the mortality rate decreased from 40% to 20%. The dexamethasone RCT study can reduce the death rate of 1 in 3 COVID-19 patients who received mechanical ventilation therapy and 1 in 5 patients who received oxygen therapy without mechanical ventilation but did not reduce patients’ mortality rate who did not receive therapy oxygen. CONCLUSION: The use of dexamethasone with oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation can reduce mortality patients with COVID-19. © 2020 Muhammad Ardi Munir, Sarifuddin Sarifuddin, Amirah Basry, Christin Rony Nayoan, Astri Hardiyanti, Asep Dwitama Cyio.