SHILLONG: NEIGRIHMS which has started using plasma therapy on COVID- 19 patients so far have received good response out of the treatment but the institute is not reaching to any conclusion as far as the effectiveness of the therapy on the COVID patients.
Last month, NEIGRIHMS had started using its plasma bank for treatment of COVID-19 patients and so far many have expressed their keenness to donate their plasma.
Speaking about the matter, NEIGRIHMS Director, Dr P Bhattacharya said that the initial response of the treatment seems promising but the institute is not in a position to comment anything until and unless more experiments are done on the treatment.
Citing an example, he said that an 87-year old positive patient was admitted in the institute with serious lungs problem besides being infected with COVID-19. The patient had senile dementia, glaucoma and benign prostatic hypertrophy on regular medications. He was treated in the COVID ICU with Non-invasive ventilation and antiviral medications.
Subsequently he was put on a high flow nasal cannula. Since the oxygen requirement was high, plasma therapy was considered.
He received two units of convalescent plasma therapy and made good progress in the rest of the 24 hours. Other COVID medicine protocols were also followed.
“After plasma treatment within 48 hours, he was tested negative and after a couple of days, he was discharged from the Hospital,” NEIGRIHMS Chief told The Shillong Times.
Dr Bhattacharya said that the institute is meant to follow new therapies and give rational parameters to the treatment besides studying and ultimately come with a research paper.
Stating that the institute is occasionally using plasma treatment as trials, he added that many people come forward to donate their plasma but the institute so far could accept the plasma of only 15 individuals as the anti bodies of the plasma has to be high enough so that it can be useful for the other patient
Recently published findings on convalescent plasma therapy on Covid-19 patients have triggered a debate over its efficacy. After the country’s largest such trial, known by the acronym PLACID, found that convalescent plasma was ineffective in arresting Covid-19, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been considering dropping this option from the national guidelines.
However, in several states including most-affected Maharashtra and Delhi, health authorities continue to push the option while those running plasma blood banks promote it with anecdotal accounts on social media.