The Assam government on Thursday decided to invite plasma donors from all over the country in a bid to carry forward its policy of ‘aggressive treatment’ of Covid-19 patients. The government said the donors will be treated as state guests.
The northeastern state is witnessing a sharp rise in positive cases and has recently started plasma therapy to treat serious cases. But due to scarcity of donors and recovered patients, it has decided to seek help of donors from other states.
Till Thursday, Assam had recorded 19,754 positive cases with 12888 recoveries and 48 deaths.
Six of the state’s recovered patients have donated plasma and three patients have been provided plasma therapy at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital.
“We appeal to the recovered patients in Assam to volunteer to donate their plasma so that we can treat other patients. I would also appeal to recovered patients from other states to come to Assam and donate plasma,” said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at a press conference on Thursday.
“Several other states have lots of recovered patients but haven’t started plasma therapy. Since their plasma would be of no use after three months of recovery, we appeal them to donate. We will soon launch an ad campaign in newspapers, TV channels and social media appealing donors to come forward,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Several other states have lots of recovered patients but haven’t started plasma therapy. Since their plasma would be of no use after three months of recovery, we appeal them to donate. We will soon launch an ad campaign in newspapers, TV channels and social media appealing donors to come forward,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}A recovered patient, who was symptomatic, can donate 400 gm of plasma (within 3 months of recovery) and it can be used to treat two patients.
Sarma added that donors from other states will be treated as state guests with free return airfare and stay. They will be given plasma donor cards and letters of appreciation for their contribution.
“For donors from Assam, we are considering giving them preference in government schemes and they may get preferential allocation of houses under PM Awas Yojana. Society should acknowledge their contribution,” he said.
“Since we didn’t have many Covid-19 cases initially, we don’t have lots of donors at present. But due to the rise in cases in the past month, we should have enough donors in Assam by August,” added Sarma.
In recent weeks, Assam government has started what it calls ‘aggressive treatment’ of Covid-19 patients with moderate symptoms in order to reduce the number of fatalities. This includes oxygen therapy, plasma therapy and use of steroids and medicines like Remdesivir.
Sarma also announced a number of new orders including compulsory installation of Covid-19 testing machines in private hospitals and home isolation guidelines for positive patients.