Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure that is in its clinical trails stage in India. It is emerging as a promising treatment to help COVID-19 patients fight the infection. Plasma is a yellowish liquid in the blood and it produces antibodies (proteins) to fight an infection in human body.
The reason for a patient to recover from an infection is because his/her body has been able to produce antibodies to fight the virus, and givea boost to their body’s immunity. For a specific period, these antibodies will remain in the recovered person’s blood. Plasma therapy is a treatment technique in which the antibodies from the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients is transferred to a suffering patient.
Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) recently allowed States to begin clinical trials of Plasma Therapy and it was reported that 100 institutes have come forward to study this techniques and effective and safe is it to be considered a viable solution. State of Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat and Delhi are into this clincial trials. Arvind Kejriwal, CM of New Delhi has said that Plasma Therapy clinical trials on 4 patients has given promising results.
“In the last few days, we have tried plasma therapy on four patients at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital. Till now the results are encouraging” “These are only early results; we must not think we have found a cure for coronavirus. This has just given us a ray of hope”
“Those who have recovered from coronavirus, if they donate their plasma, only then can we take this treatment forward. Those who come forward and donate, it will be an act of true patriotism,” added Arvind Kejriwal. Apart from India, countries like USA and UK are said to have started Plasma Therapy clinical trials.