Coronavirus: How Plasma Therapy is emerging as promising cure

As India battles Coronavirus with more than 567000 cases the medical and health experts have been working tirelessly to find a cure for the virus With many drugs and vaccines being tested one treatment that is being looked as a potential cure is Convalescent Plasma Therapy Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday inaugurated lsquoProject Platinarsquo which is said to be the worldrsquos largest and Indiarsquos first plasma therapy trial centre in Nagpur For all those wondering how to be a part of Mission Platina the worldrsquos largest plasma therapy trial and treatment they can enroll here along with adequate information The mission was launched by CMOMaharashtra OfficeofUT ji this afternoon httpstcoduiFNVGIdB pictwittercomQizzgEh8tcmdash Aaditya Thackeray AUThackeray June 29 2020What is Convalescent Plasma TherapyAccording to a report by The Hindu the Convalescent Plasma Therapy CPT involves injecting a COVID19 patient with a convalescent sera taken from people who have recently recovered from the pandemic without ventilator support A report of the WHOChina Joint Mission on COVID19 that has been quoted by this newspaper said that virusneutralising convalescent sera contains antibodies that act as a passive antibody therapyThe plasma is extracted from a patient in two ways through routine blood withdrawal by centrifuge technique and through an aphresis or cell separator machine In the first method the 180 ml to 220 ml sera can be collected in three to five sittings and stored for a year in 60 degree Celsius In the second method 600 ml sera can be collected at one time and stored for a year These processes are done to extract plasma from the donorrsquos blood that can be used to treat patients suffering from COVID19The convalescent sera can be transported to any part of the world by storing it through coldchain process which is also used in storing vaccines The report also mentioned that the therapy is quickly doable and does not cause any major side effectsApart from COVID19 the therapy has also been used for treating other illnesses such as SARS and MERSClinical trials being conducted in IndiaMany hospitals in India have been conducting clinical trials in various stages as per the guidelines by the Indian Council Medical Research ICMR According to a report in the Hindustan Times the Union Health Ministry had earlier advised against the therapy to be used as an approved treatment for coronavirus and said that it should be used for research and trial to test its efficiency The ministry also added that the therapy if used indiscriminately can lead to lifethreatening complicationsThe report also said that as per expertsrsquo opinions large scale use of plasma therapy is limited by the availability of volume of plasma The therapy also poses a challenge that the recipient has to be screened for other infections to avoid complications and also to know the stage in which the treatment is requiredChallengesAmid reports of people who have recovered from Coronavirus not stepping forward to donate their plasma Thackeray had assured people while inaugurating the Project Platina that doing so does not cause any harm The Donors are available in large numbers and have no weakness whatsoever after plasma donation as RBC are returned back to the patient he tweetedThe entire plasma therapy treatment will be free of cost to all the patients of Maharashtra admitted in the above centersThe Donors are available in large numbers and have no weakness whatsoever after plasma donation as RBC are returned back to the patientmdash CMO Maharashtra CMOMaharashtra June 29 2020According to another report by the Hindustan Times out of 67900 patients who recovered in Maharashtra only 180 donated their plasma for the treatment Doctors have been reportedly struggling to find donors for the therapy trials as 90 per cent of the patients refused to return to donate their plasmaInfrastructures developed so farWith clinical trials showing a promising result and Thackeray launching the plasma therapy trial centre in Nagpur Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also announced the setting up of a lsquofirstofitskindrsquo plasma bank in Delhi According to PTI the bank will be set up at the governmentrun Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences and doctors or hospitals will have to approach it for plasma if a COVID19 patient requires the same Usually it is difficult to save lives of those patients who are in the last stage or with comorbidities and are on ventilator support Those patients who are in a moderate stagethis therapy is very helpful for them he was quoted as saying in a PTI reportWith inputs from PTICatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news