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Plasma bank for Covid-19 patients to start on Thursday
Gurugram:
Gurugram:
Gurugram’s first plasma bank to help the treatment of critical Covid-19 patients will become operational from Thursday at Rotary blood bank, Sector 10.
Health officials said necessary arrangements for Covid-19 antibody testing and extraction of plasma have been made at the blood bank, where the coronavirus patients can procure convalescent plasma units for the therapy. Each plasma unit will cost around Rs 8,500, officials said.
Dr Anuj Garg, deputy chief medical officer, who has been designated as the nodal officer for the plasma bank from the health department, said convalescent plasma for Covid-19 patients will be issued on a signed request of the authorised nodal officer of the hospital where the patient is undergoing treatment and the medical superintendent of the district health department. Plasma units can be availed of by patients admitted in both government and private hospitals.
“The plasma unit will be given to those who require it only after approval from the hospital and health department. Though the price has been fixed at Rs 8,500 per unit, it will be free for BPL card holders and pregnant women,” Garg said. The bank will be open for blood donation from 9am to 9pm, while plasma will be available 24X7, he said.
At least five people are expected to donate their blood for plasma therapy on Thursday. “Covid-19 patients, who are already cured, are being motivated to come forward for donation,” Garg said.
The administration has been reaching out to recovered patients. As reported by HT earlier this week, a database of more than 4,000 recovered patients has been made, out of which only 50 have come forward to donate plasma.
Gurugram’s Covid-19 tally stands at 8912, out of which 1019 are active cases and 7771 have recovered from the illness. The death toll stands at 122, out of which 84 had co-morbidity.
In plasma therapy, blood is taken from a Covid-19 recovered person who has developed antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Through centrifugation, the liquid part of the blood called plasma is separated. It contains antibodies, which are transfused in the coronavirus-infected person, boosting the immune system to fight the deadly infection. It is still an experimental therapy approved by the central health ministry. The plasma therapy has previously been used during the SARS and MERS outbreaks (which were also caused by viruses from the same family as the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19).
Dr Mahima Kilhor, medical officer at Rotary blood bank, who is also the nodal in-charge of the plasma bank, said, “The blood bank already has one apheresis machine that separates blood components and plasma. After the plasma is extracted, the blood containing red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets is transfused back to the donor’s body. It takes almost 90 minutes to extract the plasma.”
But before the extraction, the blood is tested for Covid-19 antibodies through antibody-detection kits. “Over 100 Covid-19 antibody-detection kits have been provided to the bank,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.
Doctors said the concentration of antibodies in the blood plasma has to be checked before it is transfused in a patient. In this process, the blood taken from the recovered patients is diluted repeatedly. The highly diluted samples, which turn to be positive, are the ones with high antibody levels
“A certain range of antibody has to be there in the plasma; if it is below that range, then the plasma won’t be beneficial,” said Kilhor.
Currently, plasma bank facilities are operational at PGIMS, Rohtak and ESI Hospital in Faridabad. A private hospital is also conducting plasma therapy in Gurugram.
