14 recovered patients donate plasma at Rohtak’s PGIMS, 50 more queue up

Dr VK Katyal, head of medicine department at the medical institute, said it was not an ‘ultimate cure’, but could help patients with moderate symptoms

Fourteen patients who recently recovered from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) have donated plasma at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak to help those suffering from severe infection.

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Dr VK Katyal, head of medicine department at the medical institute, said at least 50 other patients have pledged to donate plasma as well.

“We are taking plasma from people aged between 18 and 60 based on their health conditions. We only take it from cured patients after two weeks of their recovery. We had conducted convalescent plasma therapy on three patients, of whom one tested negative later. One of them showed improvement, while the third one did not respond well. It is a promising therapy for severely ill patients, but there is no proof that it works for all. We are treating people with this therapy and we would be able to comment more on its efficacy after conducting trials on more than 100 patients,” Dr Katyal added.

He said it was not an ‘ultimate cure’, but could help patients with moderate symptoms.

“A plasma donor should have normal weight, haemoglobin level above 12 and no history of diabetes or hypertension. The therapy will be administered to those with respiratory rate higher than 30 (normal is 20), oxygen saturation less than 90% (normal is 95 to 100%), or those with pus in their lungs,” the doctor said.

PGIMS to set up plasma bank

Dr Katyal said PGIMS will be setting up a plasma bank which would become functional by next month.

A donor from Rohtak’s Baland village, Sumit Kumar, appealed to the recovered patients to donate plasma to help those struggling with the infection.