KCHD antibody clinic seeks approval

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) - With the surge in COVID patients in Kanawha County, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department has requested $1 million of emergency state funding from the department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) to treat COVID-positive patients with antibody treatments.

However, it’s been about a week since the health department made that request for funding, and they have not been granted approval yet.

On Thursday, health and city officials provided an update on the status of the antibody treatment center. Dr. Sherri Young says despite not having the million dollar emergency funding, they’re going to move forward with opening the antibody treatment center Friday.

“This is our last-ditch effort,” Young said.

She said the health department has enough money on their own now to open, but it’ll be on a smaller scale. This means starting Friday, they’ll treat three people in the morning and three people in the afternoon.

Dr. Young says, in the meantime, they’re going to look at other avenues of funding, such as FEMA, to be able to increase that number of patients.

Walk-ins are not allowed.

The requirements to get an antibody treatment are you have to be at least 12 years of age and roughly 80 pounds. You also have to be COVID-positive, and you must get a referral from your doctor.

As of now, while they are just starting out, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department is only taking COVID-positive patients from CAMC who qualify for the antibody treatment.

Young said she hopes to start having patients outside of CAMC come in with doctor referrals in a couple of weeks, but there is no set date yet.

She says this antibody treatment does not prevent someone from getting COVID. However, it gives COVID-positive patients the help to recover quickly -- ultimately helping to relieve stress from overflowing hospitals.

“What the monoclonal antibodies does is it gives us the ability to very rapidly treat somebody for COVID and have a better outcome by giving them that artificial antibody response that they would have had had they had the vaccine or were able to mount that antibody response to the vaccine,” Young said.

If you’re coming for antibody treatment, health department officials ask that you use the Clendenin Street entrance.

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