Haryana seeks ICMR nod to start plasma therapy

Ipsita Pati | TNN | Updated: Apr 22, 2020, 11:19 IST

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GURUGRAM: Haryana has approached the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) seeking permission to conduct plasma therapy to treat Covid-19 patients at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) Rohtak.
In plasma therapy, plasma with antibodies obtained from the blood of recovered patients is transfused to Covid-19 patients. Upon transfusion, the antibodies bind to specific antigens, recognised by the body as alien, and destroy them. The therapy has been tried in the past to treat Ebola, SARS and MERS.
“We will soon plasma therapy in Haryana. We have sent a proposal to ICMR and Drug Controller General of India in this regard,” said Rajiv Arora, Haryana additional chief secretary, health.
At present, Haryana has 147 patients who are recovered from Covid-19. The state plans to prepare a list of these patients who can donate blood plasma required for the therapy. Patients with history of other diseases, such as diabetics, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV, among others, will not be allowed to donate blood, said Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, the nodal officer for Covid-19 in Haryana and the head of the department of pulmonary and critical care at PGIMS Rohtak.
The recovered Covid-19 patients will be approached once the list is compiled. “We have a challenge ahead. Most of our recovered patients fall in the age bracket of 50 years and above, so we are not including them in our list. Also, a recovered patient can only donate blood two weeks after recovery. As many patients who can donate blood have still not completed this period, we have not yet approached them,” Dr Chaudhary added.
He also pointed out that this therapy is not for all. “We will provide it only to those who are on ventilators and aren’t showing any signs of recovery,” he said, adding that the state has the required technology to initiate the process of plasma therapy.
Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat are among states that have already received permission to conduct the convalescent plasma therapy. At Delhi’s Max Saket, a 49-year-old man, who had developed severe symptoms after being diagnosed positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to the hospital on April 4, was the first patient to be administered the therapy. As his condition showed improvement, he was weaned off ventilator and shifted to a normal room from the ICU. On Monday, doctors said he had also tested negative twice for the novel coronavirus, which meant that he had recovered from the disease.