#WorldBloodDonorDay2020: Century-old Convalescent Plasma Therapy Ignites New Hopes for #COVID19 Treatment
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#WorldBloodDonorDay #coronavirus
(📸: Mahesh G/BCCL Vijayawada)
Experts continue to stress that the therapy holds promise, and there is a growing need for plasma donors across the country to give a fighting chance for #COVID19 patients with severe symptoms.
➡️What is convalescent plasma therapy?⬅️
It is a passive antibody therapy where the immunity of a recovered patient is transferred to a sick person using blood plasma. When attacked by a pathogen, our immune system produces proteins called antibodies to fight the infection.
If the infected person can produce sufficient antibodies, he can recover from the disease caused by that pathogen.
➡️Has the therapy been used before?⬅️
-Passive Antibody Therapy is an age-old technique to treat infectious diseases.
-German physiologist Emil von Behring and Japanese physician Baron Kitasato Shibasaburo are the pioneers of modern therapeutic Immunology.
➡️Is the therapy effective?⬅️
-First #COVID19 patient who underwent #PlasmaTherapy in India recovered during last week of April in Delhi. Positive results have come from states like Gujarat, Kerala.
-The first patients to receive it in Maharashtra failed to recover & died.
-Several studies in multiple countries have reiterated the importance of ‘passive antibody therapy’ as a success to treat #COVID19.
-Some researchers have expressed reservations against using the therapy, quoting some side effects like transfusion-transmitted infections.
➡️Is plasma therapy safe?⬅️
↪️Like any other medical procedure, there are substantial risks involved in convalescent plasma therapy as well.
↪️During the process of blood transfusion, there are chances of inadvertent infections getting transferred to blood cells of the patient.
↪️The treatment can suppress the body’s natural immune system, thereby leading to chances of re-infection, though such cases have not been reported yet.
↪️There are set criteria for a patient to be eligible for plasma therapy.
Though plasma therapy offers new light in the complex treatment of #COVID19 infections, availability of infrastructure, medical facilities, suitable donors, medicines and equipment pose a wide hindrance.
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