Table 3.

Pros and cons of convalescent transfusion

Pro	Con
Proximity of donors increases likelihood of transfusing strain‐specific antibodies	Greater risk for adverse side effects than MoAb or HIG mix
Does not require an existing vaccine	Safety concerns (e.g., allergic and anaphylactic reactions, TRALI, TRIM)
May be only effective treatment modality if oseltamivir or zanamivir resistance develops	Could distract from pandemic response if not effective
Less costly than equivalent current MoAb technologies	Influenza‐specific case reports are few and many confounding factors are present
Treatment modality used successfully in other infectious diseases: promising case reports for H5N1 patients	No controlled human research
Murine data suggest significant benefit in influenza‐specific cases	Regulatory concerns could delay product availability
Allows public to contribute personally to pandemic response efforts