On April 3, Facebook page Antiliberal League – ანტილიბერალური ლიგა published a post, claiming that Georgia has created a coronavirus vaccine. The post notes that five infected people have recovered after being treated with plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients. It also adds that Georgia is the first country in the world to have this experience.
The statement as if Georgia has created a coronavirus vaccine and is now using plasma-derived therapy is disinformation. This method of treatment is not new; it had been used to treat patients during outbreaks of other viruses. Georgia, however, has never used this method so far.
- At this stage, Georgia does not treat COVID-19 patients using plasma-derived therapy
Tengiz Tsertsvadze, director of Tbilisi Infectious Diseases and AIDS Center, and Paata Imnadze, deputy director of the National Center for Disease Control, did not rule out that Georgia may start treating COVID-19 patients with blood plasma. However, it has not occurred so far. Levan Gopodze, director of the Republican Hospital, also spoke about plasma-derived therapy, noting that the issue is being discussed in Georgia, but since the method contains certain risks, it remains in the process of development.
Paata Imnadze and Tengiz Tsertsvadze noted that blood plasma treatment method had been used in Georgia at different times, but it requires the blood of a lot of recovered patients and Georgia does not have enough donors right now.
- Plasma is not a coronavirus vaccine and it had already been used to treat patients during previous pandemics
Scientists from various countries are now working to create a coronavirus vaccine, but since it is still in the process of testing, the vaccine has not been used for treating infected patients. As far as the plasma treatment is concerned, China and the United States have used this method. The treatment was first used in the 1890s and it relies on blood plasma donated by recovered patients. Just the same method was used in 1918 to fight the Spanish flu outbreak.
