Karnataka: Use of plasma therapy on Covid-19 patient successful, claims KIMS Hospital

HUBBALLI: Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and Hospital has claimed to have succeeded in plasma therapy on a sexagenarian Covid-19 patient in Hubballi.
KIMS director Dr Ramalingappa Antaratani claimed that this was the first successful attempt in Karnataka.
“Though the first experiment was conducted in Bengaluru, the patient P-796 died after three days of administering the therapy on May 15.
In KIMS, the 65-year-old male patient (P- 2170), who was admitted on May 27, was on oxygen support when doctors began plasma therapy on May 28. The 63-year-old male patient (P-373) of Hubballi, who recovered from Covid-19, came forward to donate plasma for the treatment. With the help of experts at Dr RB Patil Cancer Institute at Navanagar, Hubballi, we extracted the plasma and 200ml of it was administered twice to the patient. We had obtained the nod from ICMR and the state expert’s committee on Covid-19 formed by the state government. Now we have apprised medical dducation minister Dr K Sudhakar about this,” he explained.
He asserted that the patient is responding and his condition has improved after the therapy. “This is the reason that we are claiming it as success.” he clarified.
When asked, he affirmed that KIMS doctors are ready to continue the therapy on patients, who meet the requirements and criteria of ICMR. “However, we need donors, who are cured from Covid-19. We are counselling many other cured persons but response is very low. Even well educated cured persons are hesitating to donate plasma. Any Covid-19 cured person aged between 18-65 can donate the plasma,” he said.