Covid-19: Uncertainty over banks, infra in Delhi after plasma therapy dropped

In July last year, Delhi became the first state to start a plasma bank at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in Vasant Kunj. Two others at the Delhi government’s Lok Nayak and Guru Teg Bahadur were started later on.

With the Centre dropping convalescent plasma therapy from the list of treatments prescribed for Covid-19 patients, plasma banks, and other allied infrastructure that has come up in the Capital over the course of the pandemic is likely to be rendered useless, with initiatives and registries connecting plasma donors with recipients now staring at an uncertain future.

The government’s decision to drop plasma therapy from Covid-19 treatment has also left some donors “upset”. (Vijayanand Gupta/HT file photo. Representative image)

In July last year, Delhi became the first state to start a plasma bank at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in Vasant Kunj. Two others at the Delhi government’s Lok Nayak and Guru Teg Bahadur were started later on.

Dr SK Sarin, ILBS director said the facility will continue to offer plasma for those who may need it.

“Now, it is at the discretion of the treating physician whether to prescribe it or not. If people want to donate plasma, they can continue to do so. But, we will not court donors,” he said.

Their plasma bank has issued over 2,500 units of plasma over the past month alone.

A doctor from Lok Nayak hospital confirmed that health care facilities can still choose to administer plasma therapy, despite it being dropped from clinical treatment guidelines.

“It is a guideline and not an order. If we feel that a patient needs plasma therapy, we will still provide it. The number of patients where it is used will, however, be limited. This guideline will mainly ensure that plasma therapy is not misused. We have seen it has no benefit in patients who already have severe disease,” said the senior doctor from Lok Nayak hospital.

“The plasma bank still has several units left, and we will use it at least till there are stocks,” said the doctor.

Meanwhile, volunteers working on initiatives were set up to ease access to plasma, have been left disappointed by the revised guidelines.

Delhi-based businessman Adwitiya Mal who initiated Dhoondh, a website dedicated to connecting patients with donors, said the project was put on hold on Tuesday. Mal said the message had been communicated to the team of 60+ volunteers who were working on the initiative. He said that while the decision was somewhat disappointing, the team would abide by the processes as mandated.

“I wish that some clarity emerged earlier. After nearly a year, this is slightly disappointing. But we understand the situation. No one has dealt with this disease before and infrastructure is also stretched beyond its capacity. We have put the project on hold and will abide by the protocols,” said Mal, who started the website last year following a tumultuous experience when he struggled to arrange plasma for a family member.

He said that the project was started with the aim of helping people since hospitals were prescribing the treatment and many critical patients were failing in arranging the same. “We set up Dhoondh because we went through the trouble of arranging plasma as a family. There were various issues and it was a painful time. We stepped in to help because we didn’t want others to go through the same. It’s disappointing that we still don’t have a solution and people continue to suffer due to the disease,” said Mal.

Kaushik Raj, a poet, and student who is a part of a Covid-19 volunteer network, said that while doubts were being raised on the effectiveness of plasma, patients went from pillar to post to arrange plasma since doctors were prescribing the treatment. Raj said that requests for plasma had declined but were still pouring in. “Today, we got a request from someone who had been asked to arrange plasma within 45 minutes. Despite the new directive, we made efforts to secure leads, since the family was in a desperate situation,” said Raj.

Bhavreen Kandhari, an activist, who has been involved in verifying leads and sharing credible medical information with people in distress, said precious life-saving efforts that were directed towards chasing plasma could have been directed towards something more crucial if the decision had been taken earlier.

“A huge amount of resources were wasted, because everyone was chasing plasma. We knew it was unnecessary, but since the government had set up banks and doctors were prescribing it, the practice continued. It became a tool of exploitation ,with some people asking for as much as ₹5 lakh to donate plasma,” said Kandhari.

The government’s decision to drop plasma therapy from Covid-19 treatment has also left some donors “upset”. Some of these people donated plasma multiple times over the past year and encouraged others as well. “When I heard the news, I felt a little bad and upset. It looks like all our sacrifice was in vain, although I would donate again if called upon to do it,” said Subhash Nagpal, a man who donated plasma four times after the passing away of his parents due to Covid-19 in quick succession. His first donation was on his birthday last year, a tribute to his parents who passed away just days before.

“Donors in a Whatsapp group I am a part of are discussing only this since morning. We do not like this announcement. It shows that either the research earlier was lacking, or it is lacking now,” said Nagpal, adding that he’ll continue to cherish his act nevertheless.

Yogesh Dhankar, an employee at RML Hospital, who donated plasma thrice, believes that new virus variants have prompted the government to rethink the guidelines. “When I donated thrice last year, I know about at least two lives being saved. I’ll always live with the satisfaction of saving their lives, even if my plasma never had anything to do with it,” said Dhankar.