COVID-19: Clinical trial of plasma therapy to begin in Kolkata

Kolkata, May 16 () The West Bengal government incollaboration with the Council of Scientific and IndustrialResearch (CSIR) is set to commence clinical trials ofconvalescent plasma therapy with the objective of treatingCOVID-19 patients in the city, after the Drug Control Generalof India gave its approval for the joint effort, an officialsaid on Saturday.

The purpose of the clinical trials is to understandthe efficacy of blood plasma of a recovered COVID-19 patientin the treatment of others suffering from the disease, hesaid.

The trails are likely to start at the newly-constructed Critical Care Unit (CCU) of the Beliaghata IDHospital next week, he said.

"The CCU unit of the Beliaghata ID Hospital is almostready and the clinical trials of the convalescent plasmatherapy may start next week," the official told .

The CCU unit of the hospital has 16 beds, he said.

The trials, funded and supported by the CSIR, willhave senior doctors like Yogiraj Roy, Biswanath Sharma Biswasand Shekhar Ranjan Paul as the clinical investigators, hesaid.

The therapy involves taking antibodies from the bloodof a person who has recovered from COVID-19 and transfusingthose antibodies into an active coronavirus patient to helpthe immune system to fight the infection.

To begin with, willing plasma donors will be screenedto select those eligible for donation. SCHBDC BDC