Lending credence to researchers’ hope that convalescent plasma therapy could be effective on COVID-19 patients, a man who underwent the therapy at the Government Medical College Hospital here has been shifted from ventilator support to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
He would soon be shifted out of the ICU to a room as per the recommendation of the medical board, said M.A. Andrews, Principal, Government Medical College, Thrissur, on Friday. This is considered the ‘first successful case’ of plasma therapy for COVID-19 in the State.
“The condition of the patient is improving. Currently he is in ICU. He will soon be shifted to the room as per the recommendation of the medical board. He was administered plasma in two batches,” said Dr. Andrews.
Though plasma therapy was tried on some other patients too, including former Santhosh Trophy player E. Hamsakoya, it was not effective on them. Convalescent plasma therapy was done on the critically ill 51-year-old COVID-19 patient, who arrived from Delhi, on an experimental treatment basis, with plasma collected from a person who recovered from the infection.
Willingness
Many patients who recovered from COVID-19 had expressed willingness to donate plasma. The therapy was carried out by the Department of Transfusion Medicine and the Department of Anaesthesia.
The therapy is an experimental treatment that some doctors are using for people with severe COVID-19. People who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies — proteins the body uses to fight off infections — to the disease in their blood. The blood from people who have recovered is called convalescent plasma. Researchers hope that it can be given to people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus.