E-Paper
Covid-recovered SRPF jawans donate plasma at Pune’ Sassoon hospital
While ten jawans have committed to do the same during an ongoing plasma donation drive from August 7 to 9, at the hospital
State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) jawans who have recovered from Covid-19 (coronavirus) have stepped in to donate plasma in the city.
Six SRPF jawans, on Friday, donated blood to retrieve plasma which is effective as a treatment for Covid-19, especially for critical patients. While ten jawans have committed to do the same during an ongoing plasma donation drive from August 7 to 9, at Sassoon General Hospital.
A total of at least 200 jawans tested positive for the Sars-Cov-2 virus in various SRPF groups in Pune and Daund who are now being approached for plasma donation. After consultation by the Sassoon hospital staff, these 16 jawans agreed for the same.
Dr Shankar Mugawe, chief coordinator, Medical Social Services Superintendent, who has arranged this drive said, “At least 200 Covid-19 patients from SRPF, and hundred more from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have recovered from the virus infection. If they all come forward it will be a good response.”
“Six jawans donated blood for plasma and they will, in turn, go to their colleagues and encourage others who have recovered to do the same,” he said.
While the jawans have come forward the hospital administration has been struggling to convince civilians to donate blood for plasma therapy.
Dr Nalini Kadgi, associate professor, pathology department and incharge of Sassoon’s blood bank, said, “We will reintroduce the red blood cells after the antibodies are recovered. We conducted two lectures and attended to all their doubts and queries after they were satisfied they agreed to come forward to donate.”
“However, we are not getting a positive response from residents overall. We have contacted close to 1,500 people who have recovered from Covid-19 in the city. We got positive responses from only 60 people, out of which 15 were not eligible and the remaining, including these six jawans have donated blood for plasma,” he said.
“The most number of people who recovered in the initial months are from Bhawani peth and Tadiwala road, if any political party or corporators invites us and gathers people we can counsel them and encourage more people to donate their blood for plasma,” he said.
One of the jawans who donated blood said, “Initially even I had doubts, but they were cleared by the doctors. They collected samples when they came for counselling and those who were eligible were called. The room where blood is taken is completely isolated and properly maintained so there is no question of getting infected again.”
“I did not experience any kind of weakness or any physical problems. It took one hour for the process to complete and one hour before that for testing. My family was also supportive of this,” he said.
Who can donate plasma
The donor must be 18-60 years of age.
The donor will be thoroughly checked before the plasma is retrieved from the blood
The entire process takes about 2-3 hours and the person does not experience any weakness.
As of July 15, at least 6,500 people were discharged in PMC jurisdiction after being declared of the virus. All those, who have no comorbidity and have not reported any symptoms in the past month within the age group of 18-60 are eligible to donate plasma
Plasma therapy has proven to be a successful treatment method for critical patients.