Potential effective treatment for COVID-19: systematic review and meta-analysis of the severe infectious disease with convalescent plasma therapy.

Abstract Background Convalescent plasma (CP) has been used successfully to treat many types of infectious diseases, and it has shown initial effects in the treatment of the emerging 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, its curative effect and feasibility have yet to be confirmed by formal evaluation and well-designed clinical trials. To explore the effectiveness of treatment and predict the potential effect of CP for COVID-19, studies of different types of infectious diseases treated with CP were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods Related studies were obtained from databases and screened based on the inclusion criteria. The data quality was assessed, and the data were extracted and pooled for analysis. Results We included 40 studies on CP treatment for infectious diseases We found that CP treatment could reduce the risk of mortality with a low incidence of adverse events, promote the production of antibodies, show the decline in viral load, and shorten the disease course. A meta-analysis of 15 controlled studies showed that there was a significantly lower mortality rate in the group treated with CP (pooled OR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.19-0.52, P  Conclusions CP therapy has some curative effect and is well tolerated to treat infectious diseases. It is a potentially effective treatment for COVID-19.