Saswati Sarkar
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Written By: Saswati Sarkar | Updated : April 21, 2020 11:24 PM IST
Plasma Therapy For COVID-19: The COVID-19 infection, caused by novel coronavirus, has affected more than 2 million people so far, and more than a lakh have lost their lives to it. Doctors and scientists are toiling hard to find a cure and vaccine for this condition. However, there is no treatment available for the virus yet. One of the many treatments that doctors are experimenting with, is plasma therapy or convalescent plasma therapy. Recently, a COVID-19 patient from Delhi showed remarkable improvement after he was treated with plasma therapy.
The 49-year-old patient was admitted to a private hospital in Delhi on 4th April with moderate symptoms. He had come with a history of fever and respiratory symptoms. His condition worsened in a span of 3-4 days, necessitating ventilator support. However, when he showed no signs of improvement for quite some time, he was administered the plasma therapy. According to the reports of the hospital, he recovered fully now, testing negative for the novel coronavirus twice. However, it is too early to conclude that he was cured by this therapy alone. There could be multiple factors behind his recovery.
Plasma is the liquid part of the blood rich in antibodies which are produced by your immune cells to ward off infections. If people recover from a fatal infection, they develop antibodies against the virus or bacteria (pathogen) causing that infection. This whole process of antibody formation happens in the blood plasma. In this therapy, doctors collect a recovered patient's plasma rich in antibody and inject to people suffering severely from the same condition. This method is being applied for COVID-19 patients in some parts of India as well as the world.
China, where the novel coronavirus emerged for the first time, had used this treatment for a few critical patients as parts of clinical trials. The result was positive. UK and US have also begun trials for plasma therapy. Three American Indians showed signs of recovery after this treatment. Earlier, it had been used to treat SARS, Ebola, H1N1 and the Spanish flu epidemic in the past.
Currently, theIndian Council of Medical Research does not approve plasma therapy as a treatment modality for COVID-19, except for clinical trials.Several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started clinical trials of therapy for the treatment of COVID-19.Nearly 100 institutes have expressed their interest to study the safety and efficiency of plasma therapy in curing this deadly infection. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also allowing only clinical trials of blood plasma therapy. It has chosen Mayo Clinic to evaluate the efficacy of this method for the treatment of COVID-19.
A COVID-19 patient, who has recovered from the condition can be the donor of blood plasma if his blood is sufficiently rich in antibodies against the infection. He has to be completely cured and asymptomatic for at least 28 days before donating. One person can donate 400ml of plasma, which can save two lives.
