====== Giuseppe De Donno ======

Giuseppe De Donno (born in Mantova on 2 July 1967, died in Curtatone on 27 July 2021) was an Italian doctor. 

He attended classical high school before graduating in medicine and surgery and then later specializing in physiopathology, respiratory allergology and pulmonology. 

In 1996, he began working in the respiratory system diseases department of the General Hospital of the University of Modena. 

In 2018, he was appointed head of pulmonology at the Carlo Poma hospital in Mantua, and had previously served as manager of the pulmonology unit there since 2013. 

He also had a role in politics, having been deputy mayor of Curtatone since 2010 under Mayor Antonio Badolato. 

He was one of the first to advocate for the use of hyperimmune plasma as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2, which was initially tested in the Mantuan hospital and then spread to other hospitals such as the San Matteo Polyclinic of Pavia.

In Italy there was an unjust campaign to discredit this type of therapy, to which De Donno responded by demonstrating the groundlessness of the criticisms that had been brought against him.
[(DeDonnoRef10>>
title: De Donno against everyone: better to go abroad
url: https://www.dottnet.it/articolo/30786/de-donno-contro-tutti-meglio-andare-all-estero/
)]
[(DeDonnoRef20>>
title: Does plasma therapy scare pharmaceutical companies? The outburst of Prof. De Donno.
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ7Ds0gS7CY
)]
He didn't understand why there wasn't a commitment on the part of everyone to support and spread this approach as widely as possible, which could save so many lives.

He was unable to comprehend when Italian public institutions promoted a study on hyperimmune plasma therapy by identifying Pisa as the leader for the elaboration of the treatment protocol, which did not have an experience equal to his on this, instead of Mantua or Pavia, where it had already been a much wider experimentation was carried out and with favorable results. 
[(DeDonnoRef30>>
title: Plasma therapy reduced deaths by 15 to 6%
url: https://www.dottnet.it/articolo/30847/la-terapia-col-plasma-ha-ridotto-i-decessi-dal-15-al-6-/
)]
[(DeDonnoRef40>>
title: Coronavirus, De Donno in the Senate: "Politics wants to silence science" (14.05.2020)
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVIq1Bqk3Wg
)]
The study concluded in April 2021 that no benefits had been found, leaving De Donno even more embittered.
[(DeDonnoRef50>>
title: COVID-19: tsunami study, plasma does not reduce risk of respiratory worsening or death
url: https://www.iss.it/primo-piano/-/asset_publisher/3f4alMwzN1Z7/content/covid-19-studio-tsunami-il-plasma-non-riduce-il-rischio-di-peggioramento-respiratorio-o-morte
)]
He had not been asked to contribute to the definition of the therapeutic protocol to be applied, therefore nothing in reality could be said about the validity of the De Donno treatment protocol, but then precisely that study was used in Italy to discourage the diffusion of therapy based on hyperimmune plasma. There is ample documentation of the fact that instead the De Donno protocol, correctly applied, was bringing excellent results.
[(DeDonnoRef60>>
title: "Me pregnant recovered from Covid: plasma therapy saved me and my daughter"
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBJKmsIWYgM&t=636s
)]
[(DeDonnoRef70>>
title: Convalescent plasma for coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnancy: a case report and review
url: https://www.ajogmfm.org/article/S2589-9333(20)30118-X/fulltext
)]
[(DeDonnoRef80>>
title: Mortality reduction in 46 severe Covid-19 patients treated with hyperimmune plasma. A proof of concept single arm multicenter trial
url: https://haematologica.org/article/view/9826
)]
[(DeDonnoRef90>>
title: Safety and Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma in Elderly COVID-19 Patients: The RESCUE Trial
url: https://www.mcpiqojournal.org/article/S2542-4548(21)00029-1/fulltext
)]
[(DeDonnoRef100>>
title: Early and persistent viral clearance in COVID-19 patients treated with convalescent plasma 
url: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1246782021000641?via%3Dihub
)]

In the Wikipedia article on De Donno, a work of censorship seems to have been carried out, in which both the reference to the scientific study in which he had participated and the subsequent ones that had highlighted the usefulness of the therapy he had proposed were removed. Therefore, it seems that the act of ostracism against him is continuing.

In any case De Donno continued to be surrounded by the affection of the many patients he had effectively healed with his treatments and by thousands of admirers throughout Italy, but his life ended tragically on July 27, 2021, perhaps because of the weight of what the doctor had unjustly suffered up to that time.

After his death, other studies 
[(DeDonnoRef110>>
title: COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of Immunocompromised Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
url: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800275
)]
[(DeDonnoRef120>>
title: Early Outpatient Treatment for Covid-19 with Convalescent Plasma
url: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2119657
)]
followed which showed that there are treatment protocols based on hyper-immune plasma that have proven effective in the treatment of [[Sars-CoV-2]], as De Donno had already verified, working tirelessly in the ward.

His greatest dream is that an ethical research center could be born between Mantua and Modena, also connected with many other universities. It would be nice if a study center of this type could bear his name in the future.