‘It’s lifesaving’: New plasma donor centre operated by Canadian Blood Services opens, spreads hope for more medical treatment

CBS unveils dedicated plasma centre in Vaughan

Yorkregion.com
June 9, 2023
Brian Capitao

Angela DiMondo was diagnosed with an immune deficiency condition at the height of AIDS. She was ostracized by her co-workers, who would make fun of her condition.

She lived a full year with the condition until she came across lifesaving treatment in the form of plasma back in 1987.

Plasma is a protein-rich liquid living inside our blood that can help create lifesaving medication. Now, the city of Vaughan is introducing a plasma-dedicated donor centre to help save lives.

Lives like that of DiMondo’s, who is a local Woodbridge resident and lives with what is called common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) and still takes regular injections of plasma.

“I’ve been a recipient of plasma product since 1987, so it's been 36 years, and I receive about 40 grams of immunoglobulin, which is a product of plasma, every four weeks for the last 36 years. And without it, I probably would be dead,” said DiMondo.

“It was like a death sentence,” she added.

Others with different conditions, like those who were diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), also could attest to the power of plasma.

“It’s lifesaving. It's truly lifesaving,” said Hanan Van Holst, a survivor of GBS and volunteer with the GBS/CIDP Foundation of Canada.

“I don’t have to have this treatment. I had it the one time only at the beginning stages, but there are many people, especially those with a chronic version of what I have, that require this treatment every four or five weeks,” Van Holst told the Vaughan Citizen.

 “So it's very important for them to be able to be able to function normally and to survive,” added Van Holst, whose husband is also on the board of directors for GBS/CIDP Foundation of Canada.

This is why plasma is called “liquid gold.” by some And yet, so little of the general public understands what it does.

“It's 55 per cent of our blood. So what plasma is, is the protein-rich liquid in our blood that helps other blood components circulate throughout our body,” said Mike Belviso, manager of business development at Canadian Blood Services in Vaughan.

“But plasma, when it's separated from your red blood cells and other blood components, it's actually a golden yellow. And we love to call it ‘liquid gold’ because of its lifesaving medications that we can produce from it,” added Belviso.

When asked whether gay men would be allowed to donate -- a controversial topic in Canada, as gay men were not allowed to donate for decades -- Belviso said, “We absolutely do allow that.”

According to their website, anyone regardless of sexual orientation or gender would be asked if they had new or multiple partners within the last three months of donating. A followup would then be asked regarding whether they had anal sex with any partner within the last three months.

“Plasma donations are very, very important. You need a lot of plasma because they make a lot of medications from it,” said Van Holst, who received intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment during her initial diagnosis.

As the rules become more relaxed to allow for more donors, more people will learn about plasma’s curative properties.

“Not many people knew about or know about plasma. We know about blood. It's very easy to understand, but plasma is something that we need to talk more about,” concluded Belviso.