Let’s hear from Dr Bruce J Kirenga, Makerere University Lung Institute, Uganda, about this 2021 article published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research “Open access publishing ensures publications are available to everyone, including scientists and policy makers in low resourced settings...”
Dr Bruce J Kirenga is Chief Research Scientist and founding Director of the Makerere University Lung Institute. He is also Associate Professor (Pulmonary Medicine) in the Department of Medicine, Makerere University.
What inspired you to pursue research in this particular area?
This research was driven by the need to have affordable therapeutics for COVID-19. At the time this research was done, there were no proven therapeutics for COVID-19, and those that were currently under development would certainly not be affordable for LMICs. There would thus be a need for a readily available and affordable therapeutics in our settings; and convalescent plasma seemed the viable option given we had a large pool of individuals that had recovered from COVID-19 and were willing to donate blood. How do you envision your research contributing to the broader field or addressing real-world issues? The research contributes to the body of evidence on the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma in the treatment of COVID-19. The findings from this study were not different from findings from elsewhere, and this provided the scientific community with sufficient evidence against use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 and consideration of other treatment options.
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