A Surprising Question From A Doctor
I must have been about twenty-five, when I caught both chickenpox and measles at the same time from two of my children. Or I did think, that was the case, but the two youngest children must have had the MMR vaccine.
I remember, that I spent fourteen days on the sofa hardly moving, which is very unlike me.
After I was feeling better, I went to see my GP, who thought it was all over.
He then asked me if I gave blood. I replied that I didn’t!
It was only a couple of years later, when I was watching a documentary about children with leukaemia, that I heard a possible reason for his question.
- The documentary said that they gave blood with antibodies to childhood diseases to children undergoing chemotherapy.
- And my blood with both measles and chickenpox might have been very useful.
I’m publishing this post, as it has been announced today, that COVID-19 is to be treated with blood plasma, from survivors of the disease.
This article on the BBC, which is entitled Coronavirus: Thousands Signal Interest In Plasma Trial, gives more details.
The Anonymous Widower 
Hi James, as you know, I have leukaemia, and I was delighted to hear about the trials. In fact I told Neil that I became very seriously ill with coronavirus to the extent of being intubated in an induced coma, I would want to be given the plasma, even if only as part of the trial.
Then this morning I learnt from one of the leukaemia groups on line that people with leukaemia may not be able to have the plasma, as it now has to be irradiated to stop us getting infections. I don’t know what the situation is with this plasma, it sounds a good idea to me, and I am not concerned about infection with other things if I am already so ill because it could save my life.
When I had German Measles as a small child, my mother caught it and was very poorly. And when I worked at The Christie they were VERY strict with chicken pox – staff and volunteers were tested to see if they had immunity to it. I sometimes used to take my girls into events there, and so they had to be tested. Older daughter had it when I was pregnant with younger daughter, tests show she had antibodies and presumably had it before she was born.
Comment by nosnikrapzil | May 3, 2020 |
[…] I said no, but I have did have a bad case at about twenty-five, which I recounted in A Surprising Question From A Doctor. […]
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[…] I said no, but I have did have a bad case at about twenty-five, which I recounted in A Surprising Question From A Doctor. […]
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