The Convalescent Plasma Therapy comprises of transfusion of plasma from a patient who’s recovered from the Covid-19 disease to the patient who’s supposed to turn critical.
Thiruvananthpuram| Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has already given an important approval to Kerala for plasma therapy transfusion treatment on high-risk Covid-19 patients. Though the state is still waiting for the approval for the multi-center trials from the Drug Controller of India. The approval is awaited since the process involves relaxation in blood donation norms.
The Convalescent Plasma Therapy comprises of transfusion of plasma from a patient who’s recovered from the Covid-19 disease to the patient who’s supposed to turn critical. Rich with antibodies, the plasma of recovered person, is likely to help the critical patient recover.
The criteria for the donor is that the patient should have recovered, have tested negative for multiple times and is asymptomatic after 14 days of isolation.
“If the person who has recovered gives consent, we can test for antibody levels,” Dr. Anoop Kumar, Member of the panel set up to advise the CM and a critical care doctor at Baby Memorial Hospital, told news channel NDTV.
“This is not like blood donation. Only the plasma from the body is collected. A person who weighs 55 kg and has ample protein in blood, can donate 800 ml of plasma, which can be used for treating four patients. One patient would require 200 ml of plasma,” he said while talking to NDTV correspondent.
The plasma therapy, though, is meant for only those covid-19 patients who are in critical shape.
According to sources, the ELISA kits are useful in checking the level of antibodies in a patient. But because of the lockdown and disruption in the global supply chain, it is going to be a difficult task for now.
This is the reason why the experts and officials are now looking for other alternatives if the ELISA kits run out of the stock.
The ELISA kits are rapid test kits for coronavirus testing, which qualitatively indicate the presence of antibodies in a patient, created by the immune system to fight the virus.
“Sree Chitra is awaiting approval of its ethics committee and of drug controller to start the study. Plasmapheresis will be done at five medical college state hospitals and Sree Chitra will lead the project,” Director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences, Dr. Asha Kishore, told the NDTV.
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