China sending medical team to help Italy contain virus

Yang Huichuan, the vice-president of China National Biotech Group Co Ltd (CNBG), a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Co (Sinopharm), is going to Italy to help contain the coronavirus outbreak there, as a member of a medical team the Red Cross Society of China dispatched.

The seven-member team also consists of an expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and medics from Southwest China's Sichuan province.

An expert in blood products, Yang is expected to help the European country in applying convalescent plasma therapy on COVID-19 patients, using experiences China has accumulated, CNBG said.

The company is the first in China to develop the convalescent plasma treatment for patients suffering the disease, using blood plasma taken from convalescents, and China's National Health Commission has issued guidelines on use of the convalescent plasma treatment.

The company said it has sent 44 teams using special equipment to collect plasma from recovered patients and set up 50 plasma collection sites.

It has also established a protocol to prepare the convalescent plasma treatment, which includes rigorous virus inactivation measures and several procedures to neutralize antibodies and pathogenic microorganisms.

Yang Xiaoming, president of CNBG, said the company is willing to share its experiences with the international community, to save lives from the disease,