Haryana: Plasma therapy starts at PGIMS

CHANDIGARH: With its deaths due to Covid-19 continuing to rise, Haryana has started plasma therapy for treating patients at PGIMS, Rohtak.
Plasma therapy is said to be helpful in treating critically-ill Covid patients, and the government would be hoping to arrest the rising number of deaths due to the virus in the state with it. The death toll rose to 232 on Monday. The government is looking to start the therapy at all its medical colleges, but permission is awaited from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Haryana health and medical education minister Anil Vij made a formal announcement about starting the therapy on Monday and claimed that this would boost recovery rate in the state and be instrumental in treating COVID patients.
Dr O P Kalra, vice-chancellor of Pandit BD University of Health Sciences, of which PGIMS is a part, said ICMR had given the go-ahead three weeks ago. Now, PGI authorities are motivating recovered patients to donate plasma.
“Soon after getting the clearance from ICMR, we got the proposal cleared by the ethics committee of the hospital. This was followed by search for donors. Our teams have got a few (donors) and now we plan to have an extensive campaign to motivate donors,” said Dr Kalra.
If all goes according to plan, the facility would have a good amount of donors and this would boost treatment of patients, he added.
Dr Kalra said since PGIMS had Haryana’s biggest blood bank and ahuge data base, authorities were writing to voluntary blood donation organisations as well as groups to look for recovered patients among them.
After falling to 40%, Haryana’s recovery rate has improved to over 60%.