COVID-19 Antibody Testing Coming to a Close
Last Updated on December 07, 2021
LifeServe’s COVID-19 antibody testing program in partnership with the State Hygienic Lab at the University of Iowa is coming to an end.
For more than a year, LifeServe was able to provide blood donors information about their COVID-19 antibody status and titer level. This program, along with added pre-donation screening questionnaire questions regarding COVID-19 vaccination status, aimed to identify potential COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) donors. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, CCP was a highly sought-after treatment for the most critically ill hospitalized patients battling the coronavirus. With new treatment options for this virus readily available to our local hospital partners, the need for convalescent plasma continues to decline. LifeServe Blood Center is still meeting the occasional request from our current supply of frozen CCP.
“We’ve been pleased to offer this added benefit to blood donors,” said Danielle West, LifeServe Blood Center Director of Public Relations and Marketing. “We want to thank everyone who eagerly stepped up to donate blood to find out of they’d be eligible to donate convalescent plasma when our hospital partners were desperately seeking it as a treatment for COVID-19. The need for blood donors isn’t going away, so we encourage folks to keep making regular donations!”
The COVID-19 antibody testing program will wrap on or before December 31, depending on the availability of testing reagents at our laboratory partner.