Coronavirus: Two recovered women come forward to give plasma
Both the women from Jabalpur were among the firstbatch of four persons from the state who had tested positivefor coronavirus on March 20, Jabalpur district CollectorBharat Yadav told .
"The woman and her daughter who recovered from COVID-19 disease have come forward to donate their plasma to treatsome seriously-ill patients in Bhopal," he said.
Yadav said the district administration is makingefforts to introduce plasma therapy to treat COVID patients.
In a related development, state-run Netaji SubhashChandra Bose Medical College and Hospital, based in Jabalpur,has approached the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)seeking permission for using the plasma therapy.
"We have approached the ICMR for permission to useplasma therapy to treat COVID patients," said Netaji SubhashChandra Bose Medical College and Hospital dean Dr PK Kasar.
He said the plasma therapy was currently used fortreating burn cases.
Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimentalprocedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment plasma, ablood component, from a cured COVID-19 patient is transfusedto a critically ill coronavirus patient.
The blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19develops antibodies to battle against the virus. This therapyuses antibodies from the blood of a cured coronavirus patientto treat another critical patient.
Earlier in the day, Union Health Ministry said theplasma therapy is at experimental stage and there is noevidence yet to support that it can be used as treatment forCOVID-19.
Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal saidcurrently there are no approved therapies for COVID-19 andthere is not enough evidence to claim that plasma therapy canbe used for treatment of the disease. CORR LAL MASNSK NSK