Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : February 8, 2021 3:58 PM IST
Image credits by: ICMRs PLACID study found that convalescent plasma therapy didn’t help stop patients from becoming severely ill or reducing mortality.
Convalescent plasma therapy was one of the most touted treatment for patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 during the earliest days of the pandemic. It involves using blood from people who've recovered from the illness to help others recover. While some studies suggested that the use of this treatment method was associated with a lower likelihood of death in COVID-19 patients, others said that it is ineffective in reducing the disease progression. Despite mixed views about the experimental therapy, it is still used in some countries to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients, under restricted conditions.
Meanwhile, results of a case study indicated that use of blood plasma donated from COVID-19 survivors may have helped the virus to evolve and become less susceptible to immune system antibodies that normally fight off infection. The study report was published Friday in the journal Nature, according to Bloomberg.
While treating a cancer survivor for Covid-19, British doctors found that the virus mutated after the man was treated with convalescent plasma. The patient, who died after fighting the virus for 102 days, didn't develop the exact variant that's now dominant in the UK, but the doctors said it did have certain elements in common.
According to the doctors, the use of blood plasma offered no clear benefit, but it also didn't seem to harm the patient. They cautioned that convalescent plasma should be used cautiously in people with chronic immune conditions, preferably in clinical trials or carefully controlled settings.
The study reports also suggested that chronic Covid-19 infections and compromised immune systems may also facilitate mutation of the virus.
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised its emergency use authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 convalescent plasma. It has limited the use of this treatment to high titer units and only in hospitalized patients who are in the early stages of the disease or who have impaired humoral immunity.
The FDA decision is based on the latest data from randomized controlled trials and observational studies that suggested that high titer COVID-19 convalescent plasma administered earlier on in the course of disease may be effective.
However, the agency still stresses that "COVID-19 convalescent plasma should not be considered a new standard of care for the treatment of patients with COVID-19."
Like many countries around the world, India has allowed the use of plasma to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients as experimental therapy, only after receiving consent of patients and their families.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently warned against indiscriminate use of convalescent plasma therapy after its own study found that it didn't help stop patients from becoming severely ill or reducing mortality. However, it stopped short of banning the therapy.
An article published in the International Journal of Molecular & Immuno Oncology concluded that convalescent plasma therapy for covid-19 still has the potential to save lives.
Authors Kaival K Gundavda , Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai and Purvish M Parikh, Department of Oncology, Asian Cancer Institute, Mumbai, noted that convalescent plasma therapy should not be denied to COVID-19 patients, until the ICMRs PLACID study results is ascertained accurately.
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