• Jae Hyoung Im, Chung Hyun Nahm, Ji Hyeon Baek, Hea Yoon Kwon, and Jin Soo Lee.
• Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2020 Jul 6; 35 (26): e239e239.

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading around the world, causing much morbidity and mortality everywhere. However, effective treatments or vaccines are still not available. Although convalescent plasma (CP) therapy can be useful in the treatment of COVID-19, it has not been widely used in Korea because of the concerns about adverse effects and the difficulty in matching patients to donors. The use of ABO-incompatible plasma is not contraindicated in treatment, but can be hesitated due to the lack of experience of physicians. Here, we describe a 68-year old man with COVID-19 who was treated ABO-incompatible plasma therapy; additionally, we comment on the acute side effects associated with ABO mismatch transfusion. To overcome the obstacles of donor-recipient connections (schedule and distance), we propose the storage of frozen plasma, modification of the current Blood Management Law, and the establishment of a CP bank. We suggest that experience gained in CP therapy will be useful for not only the treatment of COVID-19, but also for coping with new emerging infectious diseases.© 2020 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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