Plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients. Trials or treatment

News Desk

An apparent u-turn upon the much hyped plasma therapy by the ICMR has made doctors doing it to remain extra cautious.

The union health ministry a day before said there was not enough evidence to claim plasma therapy can be used for treatment of COVID-19. Plasma therapy is not an approved treatment for COVID-19, the ministry said. The therapy is still at an experimental stage and that ICMR is currently studying its efficacy.

The therapy is being used in Delhi and also in Uttar Pradesh. IN UP’s Lucknow one patient was administered plasma two days before and doctors are monitoring its progress. The ICMR has also said the trials of the therapy be done before putting it to use. But where is the time when the figures of cases are doubling at every 9 or 10 days.

Plasma therapy involves drawing out the plasma (plasmapheresis) from a patient who has recovered with a minimum window period of two weeks since recovery. About 400 ml of plasma can be used to treat two patients.

The therapy is based on the fact that antibodies are generated in a patient suffering from coronavirus and these antibodies are maximum in a person 2-3 weeks after recovery. It is based upon this principle that plasma therapy was initiated.

‘If we go for trial it will take months. By then we hope the virus will subside to a considerable level,’ said a doctor conducting plasma therapy. Doctors doing plasma therapy are now extra vigilant with patients and are monitoring every moment.

In Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University plasma therapy is being used upon a patient. the medical university has now applied to be a part of the ICMR trials too.

Health ministry statement came days after the Drug Controller-General of India gave its go-ahead to a proposal by the ICMR for the clinical trial of convalescent plasma therapy in COVID-19. Several medical centres in India started the plasma therapy and many have got approval for the same.

During the H1N1 virus outbreak of 2009 and SARS epidemic of 2003, plasma therapy was used upon patients.