COVID-19 treatment

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received renewal of a major federal grant to continue their collaboration to test and develop new treatments and vaccines against HIV/AIDS — and now COVID-19.

As of Feb. 1,065 outpatients have received antibody infusions since the clinic opened on Nov. 18. Clinic officials estimated that the infusions have prevented about 70 patients from developing severe COVID-19 illness requiring hospitalization or emergency department evaluation.

Treatment with convalescent plasma vastly improved the survival rate of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 who also had hematologic malignances that compromise the immune system, according to new data released by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19).

Physicians from all specialties across Vanderbilt University Medical Center are volunteering their time to communicate daily with family members of patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues have identified genetic factors that increase the risk for developing pneumonia and its severe, life-threatening consequences.

Against the noisy background of masking debates, surges, flattening curves, warp speed initiatives, conflicting messages and misinformation, political controversies, not to mention a revolutionary mRNA technology, millions of people are deciding whether to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has a new weapon in the fight against COVID-19 — an investigational antibody treatment approved last month for emergency use in COVID-19 outpatients at high risk of developing severe disease or requiring hospital care.