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State hospitals await approval to conduct plasma treatment
Hospitals across the country are preparing for and awaiting necessary permissions for conducting convalescent plasma therapy to treat Covid-19 patients that will involve drawing of antibody-rich blood of the disease survivors to treat the sick.
Hospitals across the country are preparing for and awaiting necessary permissions for conducting convalescent plasma therapy to treat Covid-19 patients that will involve drawing of antibody-rich blood of the disease survivors to treat the sick. The therapy has shown promise in treating Covid-19 patients, American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported last week.
“A person in Delhi has been removed from ventilator support after the plasma therapy,” said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, referring to the improvement in the condition of a man after the therapy at a Delhi hospital. “It is good news from first such experiment.” Kejriwal said the success of the experiment will be known after he is fully cured.
In Mumbai, BYL Nair Hospital dean Dr Ramesh Bharmal said they have collected blood from a patient, who has recovered from coronavirus even as protocol for the therapy is to be finalised with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s help.
Kerala was among the first states to announce the treatment through the therapy and is waiting the permissions. Sree Chithira Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) has been named as the nodal agency for harvesting plasma from cured patients in the state. “We have done our work and are waiting for hospitals to carry out clinical tests. Usually, the therapy is done in cases of severely affected patients. In Kerala, we have no such patients. This may be one of the reasons for the delay besides the customary permissions,” said SCTIMST director Dr Asha Kishore.
Officials in West Bengal, which announced the use of the therapy last week, said the state government was seeking approvals for setting up a plasma bank to store blood of cured Covid-19 patients.
“We are exploring options on how to introduce this concept at the earliest. In China, they have got some results and in the USA, too, tests are going on...,” said Abhijit Chowdhury, a public health specialist and convenor of an eight-member advisory board formed by CM Mamata Banerjee.
In Telangana, the state government-run Gandhi Hospital (Hyderabad) said it was making infrastructural arrangements for experimenting with the therapy. Dr Sravan Kumar, the hospital superintendent, said the state has given consent to the doctors for taking up the therapy. “First, we need to take up clinical trials and see how they work. Only after they prove successful, we can take up the exercise. It will take another two weeks for the doctors at the hospital to do the clinical trials,” Kumar said.
Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University (KGMU) has sent a proposal to the ICMR volunteering to be made the nodal centre for the therapy.
“We have a majority of patients admitted to and have treated them too. Since the protocols of plasma therapy are already being followed in other procedures, we can be the nodal centre for plasma therapy,” said Prof Tuliak Chandra, the head of transfusion medicine department at the KGMU. She said one of the patients treated for coronavirus at the KGMU three weeks back could be the first volunteer for plasma collection.
Officials of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh governments and Chandigarh said they have begun the work for seeking nod for conducting the therapy.
“...A trial is being considered in Kerala first and trials will be done across the country. As and when trials are permitted, we will definitely implement the same as we have a large number of patients who have been treated successfully,” said a Karnataka official who did not want to be named.
