Coronavirus treatment | Potential donors for plasma therapy either reluctant or difficult to trace

The success of plasma therapy has taken a back seat in treating critically-ill COVID-19 patients due to severe shortage of plasma donors as newly-recovered patients are either reluctant or difficult to trace, reported The Economic Times.

In plasma therapy, the plasma of a person who has recovered from COVID-19, is drawn and transferred to people who have freshly contracted the disease as the same has sufficient antibodies to fight the disease.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak infecting and killing people across the nation, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its ‘Clinical Management Protocol for COVID-19’ has allowed “off the label use” of the therapy, as per the report.

However, finding a plasma donor has become a big challenge for medical experts, the report said.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

In the therapy, when a person contracts the COVID-19 infection, their body produces antibodies to attack the novel coronavirus. These antibodies are secreted by immune cells, called B lymphocytes, found in the plasma, the liquid part of the blood.

These antibodies are the highest in a cured patient after two to three weeks of recovery. This means that a cured COVID-19 patient needs to wait for two weeks to donate plasma after testing negative, the report suggested.

It is not a hospital’s responsibility to get donors for convalescent plasma therapy, Sandeep Budhiraja, the medical director of Max Healthcare group, told the publication. He added that, despite this, they did “try and help the patient with finding a suitable donor”.

To make plasma available for needy COVID-19 patients, Fortis Healthcare said it has started building a repository of donors, added the report.