Patients are looking to “blood wash” to treat long COVID

Desperate to regain life, long COVID patients are looking to expensive “last resort” therapies to cure mysterious illnesses.

Apheresis, or “blood lavage,” is the process by which blood components, such as plasma, are separated and returned to the body through a giant needle inserted into a vein.

After learning about “blood washing” through Facebook’s support group, Gitte Boumeester spent over $ 15,000 to get treatment. BMJ When ITV News Reported in a joint investigation on Tuesday.

“What did you think was the worst thing I lost?” A training Dutch psychiatrist told reporters. “It was just money.”

And she did—after Boumeester concluded that the “blood wash” did not work two months after the procedure.

This process is typically used when certain components of the blood need to be removed, such as in the treatment of blood cancers, plasma and platelet donations, or when stem cells need to be collected.

However, in Germany, doctors consider it one of the last resorts for the treatment of some lipid disorders characterized by abnormal levels of lipids or fats in the blood. infection.

Boumeester’s series of tests revealed nothing about her condition, which developed shortly after catching the SARS-CoV-2 virus in November 2020, despite her debilitating fatigue.

But some researchers, Dr. Beate Jaeger, Made a hypothesis Its long COVID can be caused by small blood clots in the blood that impede the flow of oxygen, which leads to overt extreme fatigue and muscle aches. Therefore, in combination with the use of anticoagulants, clopidogrel, apixaban, heparin and other anticoagulants, “cleaning” the blood of unwanted lipids and proteins to clean the capillaries and improve blood circulation. I can.

Jaeger, a cardiovascular specialist in Mülheim, Germany, confirmed the apheresis used in COVID patients in the ICU and fought to publish a treatise on her approach, but the attempt was rejected. Finally, her pair of patients agreed to receive treatment for free. After that, another 60 people opt-in. She has since seen “very successful” results for thousands of patients, she said.

In one of her reports, Jaeger argued that a long COVID patient in a wheelchair could miraculously walk again after treatment. The other improved the stride from a painstaking walk to jogging.

Beverley Hunt, medical director of the charity Thrombosis UK, told The BMJ: In this situation, treatment may or may not benefit them, but worryingly, there is also a risk of harm. “

The process of apheresis is safe if performed properly, but too thin blood can have dire consequences, especially if bleeding occurs.

Even under the safest conditions, patients are also at risk of financial ruin. Boumeester has traveled approximately 1,700 air miles to the Long Covid Center in Larnaca, Cyprus. She rented an apartment on the beach for two months, booking weekly for apheresis and unproven “additional” therapies such as hyperbaric oxygen and intravenous vitamin infusion.

The cost of six “blood washes” was over $ 1,600 per session, but additional treatments were priced up to about $ 150. This was done at the recommendation of the clinician.

“I was a little vague about all the extra treatments, but I promised I would do something if I were there. I just give it a try,” she said.

Experimental treatment is generally permitted throughout Europe with explicit patient consent, but experts fear that clinics like the Long Covid Center may exceed expectations.

“People can access these treatments and go bankrupt, but there is no evidence of their effectiveness,” said Shamil Haroon, a researcher at the University of Birmingham. How doctors tackle illness.

British businessman Chris Witham from Bournemouth, like Boomers, traveled across the continent to Kempten, Germany, and took a $ 7,000 apheresis course, but it didn’t work.

“I would have sold my home and let it go to get better without rethinking,” he told the BMJ and ITV News.

The outlet spoke to only six long COVID patients who said the procedure improved some of their condition, although the symptoms were prolonged.

Their report faces claims by Austrian entrepreneur and long-time COVID patient Markus Klotz, who claims to have worked for him after establishing a clinic in Cyprus and being treated with Jeger in Mühlheim. “More than 80% of patients report that they maintain their interests permanently,” read one post on the Apheresis Society’s Facebook page, also led by Crotz.

“I realized the results were uncertain before I started, but I’m so positive that everyone in the clinic begins to believe it and gets your hope,” said Boumeester.