Plasma therapy trials from today

The much-anticipated convalescent plasma therapy clinical trials for COVID-19 patients at Gandhi Hospital will start from Monday.

Doctors at the hospital will start collecting plasma from donors who had recovered from coronavirus.

Superintendent of the hospital and principal investigator of the clinical trials M. Raja Rao said that currently around 15 people, who have recovered, are ready to donate their plasma.

He said that the donors wanted to express their gratitude to doctors for curing them and this was a way of expressing it.

However, right now, the number of people who will receive the plasma cannot be stated with certainty, as it is a dynamic number, Dr. Rao said on Sunday.

He added that there were certain parameters to select recipients, such as, the patient should be suffering from moderate to severe form of infection. Those with mild or very severe infection cannot be part of the clinical trials, he said.

“A patient, whose condition is severe, can turn very severe, any time. So we cannot say the number of recipients. Before selecting the recipient, we check their oxygen saturation levels, condition of their heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and other parts. Only those who meet all parameters will be selected,” Dr. Rao said.

Plasma collected from patients who recovered from the infectious disease would contain antibodies that neutralises coronavirus. It is expected that the mortality rate might come down when plasma filled with neutralising antibodies are infused into critically-ill patients. However, its effectiveness as a treatment option for COVID-19 is yet to be proved.

As there is no vaccine to treat the disease yet, convalescent plasma therapy is being considered as an option. The therapy dates back to more than a century when it was used in the treatment of H1N1 influenza in 1918.

Meanwhile, Gandhi Hospital doctors said that they would follow Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines to conduct the clinical trials.

Donors too have to meet a certain criteria, which includes being more than over 18 years and above 55 kg. Their blood pressure should be normal.

Before taking their blood to extract plasma, tests will be conducted to know if they have any other infection or disease.

Head of General Medicine department and co-investigator A. Vinay Sekhar said that plasma collected would be stored in a refrigerator below minus 40 degrees. “It can be stored up to 12 months,” Dr. Sekhar said.