Why Delhi Pins Its Hopes On Plasma Therapy

AAP govt pushes for plasma transfer on critically-ill Covid-19 patients as trials show positive results & many experts say it’s best bet for now

- Gulam Jeelani and Ashutosh Mishra

In the first week of April, a business family from South Delhi had three of its members testing positive for coronavirus. The eldest of the three, a 79-year-old with co-morbid conditions, succumbed to Covid-19.

His wife, also a coronavirus positive, recovered. But their 49year-old son, on ventilator support at a city hospital since April 8 after testing positive, was not showing any improvement.

On April 14, after finding a donor, the family gave the doctors its consent for convalescent plasma therapy treatment that uses antibodies from the blood of cured patients.

Within four days of the transfusion, he was taken off the ventilator and finally tested negative on April 20. The patient, who became the first in India to recover after being experimented with plasma therapy, has promised he will also be a donor when he is fully fit.

BEST BET FOR NOW

Is convalescent plasma therapy a glimmer of hope for treating critically-Covid-19 patients? Doctors say it does hold the promise of keeping the virus at bay until a vaccine is developed.

“Until approvals from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) come, we use this treatment on compassionate grounds for critically ill patients,” said Dr Sandeep Buddhiraja, group medical director, Max Healthcare, among the doctors who treated the 49-year-old.

After the family’s consent, the hospital’s ethical committee approved the decision to conduct plasma therapy on the patient, a resident of Defence Colony.