Plasma therapy shows positive results on COVID-19 patients, says Kejriwal

“We are happy with the positive results in the four patients,” said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in press briefing.

Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma from a COVID-19 patient who has recovered from the disease, is transfused into a coronavirus patient who is in critical condition. The idea behind this therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma.

A 49-year-old-male, the first coronavirus patient who was administered plasma therapy in the Max Hospital, Saket, had also shown positive results. The patient is now off ventilator support, the hospital said on Monday.

Delhi government decided to conduct plasma therapy on three more patients at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in next few days. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently allowed states to start clinical trails of plasma therapy.

For plasma therapy, doctors need plasma from COVID-19 patients who have already recovered. Those who have recovered from the disease are encouraged to donate blood for plasma therapy. “At this time, we need those people who have recovered from COVID19 and are at their homes. We need them to show their patriotism and donate blood plasma,” Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver & Biliary Science said.

The Centre permitted few states to perform plasma therapy on limited number of COVID-19 patients. Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab also started using plasma therapy to cure COVID-19 patients. Delhi government is planning to ask Centre to allow plasma treatment on all critical patients in the state.

“In the next 2-3 days, we will conduct more trials and then we will seek permission next week, for all the serious patients,” said Arvind Kejriwal.

Delhi reported 128 cases in last 24 hours, taking the total number of coronavirus patients in the state to 2,376. At least 808 patients were discharged from the hospital after recovery. Coronavirus killed 50 people in the national capital. India’s COVID-19 count climbed to 23,077 today, according ministry of health and welfare.