Clinical effectiveness of convalescent plasma in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Aims: Given the variability of previously reported results, this systematic review aims to determine the clinical effectiveness of convalescent plasma employed in the treatment of hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of controlled clinical trials assessing treatment with convalescent plasma for hospitalized patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The outcomes were mortality, clinical improvement, and ventilation requirement. Results: A total of 51 studies were retrieved from the databases. Five articles were finally included in the data extraction and qualitative and quantitative synthesis of results. The overall risk of bias in the reviewed articles was established at low-risk only in two trials. The meta-analysis suggests that there is no benefit of convalescent plasma compared with standard care or placebo in reducing the overall mortality and the ventilation requirement. However, there could be a benefit for the clinical improvement in patients treated with plasma. Conclusion: Current results led to assume that the convalescent plasma transfusion cannot reduce the mortality or ventilation requirement in hospitalized patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. More controlled clinical trials conducted with methodologies that ensure a low risk of bias are still needed. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.Fil: Abeldaño Zuñiga, Roberto Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; MéxicoFil: González Villoria, Ruth Ana María. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; MéxicoFil: Elizondo, María Vanesa. Universidad Catolica de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Medicas. Instituto de Investigacion En Ciencias Biomedicas.; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Osorio, Anel Yaneli Nicolás. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; MéxicoFil: Gómez Martínez, David. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; MéxicoFil: Coca, Silvia Mercedes. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; Méxic

Mortality related to malnutrition and infectious diseases in children under than 5 years in Argentina in the period 2001-2013

El presente documento busca analizar las tendencias de mortalidad por desnutrición y por causas infecciosas en menores de cinco años durante el período 2001-2013 en la Argentina. Para ello se construyeron tasas de mortalidad por cada 100.000 recién nacidos en los menores de 1 año y por cada 100.000 niños en las edades de 1-4 años. Las tendencias se analizaron por modelos de regresión de Poisson. Los principales resultados muestran que las tasas de mortalidad en menores de 1 año y en niños de 1-4 años presentaron una tendencia descendente en los años analizados (p< 0,01), con excepción de la mortalidad por enfermedades infecciosas de origen respiratorio en el grupo de 1-4. La cobertura de seguro de salud del niño se comportó como factor protector para el riesgo de morir (p<0,01). El documento concluye que las tendencias de mortalidad descendieron entre los años 2001-2013, mientras que la cobertura de seguro de salud es un factor protector para esa mortalidad.This document seeks to analyze trends in mortality from malnutrition and infectious diseases in children under five years during the period 2001-2013 in Argentina, and to identify the association between health insurance coverage and the risk of dying from selected causes. To this end, mortality rates were built per 100,000 newborns in children under 1 year and per 100,000 children in aged 1-4 years. Trends were analyzed by Poisson regression models. The main results show that mortality rates in children under 1 year and children aged 1-4 years showed a downward trend in analyzed years (p<0.01), except for mortality from infectious diseases of respiratory origin in the group aged 1-4 years. The health insurance coverage of children behaved as a protective factor for the risk of death (p<0.01). The document concludes that mortality trends decreased between the years 2001-2013, while health insurance coverage is a protective factor for mortalityFil: Abeldaño Zuñiga, Roberto Ariel. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; MéxicoFil: Fanta Garrido, Javiera. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Instituto de Investigaciones "Gino Germani"; ArgentinaFil: González Villoria, Ruth Ana María. Universidad de la Sierra Sur; MéxicoFil: Castellanos Ospina, Oscar Augusto. Dirección de Censos y Demografía; ColombiaFil: Quiroga, Daniel Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Cs.econom.y Administración. Instituto de Invest. Estadísticas y Demograficas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Humanidades; Argentin