After plasma donation, an FAQ to clear doubts

NEW DELHI: Sneha Gogia lost her father to Covid-19 a few days ago. She decided then that she would donate her plasma as a tribute to him since he was a regular blood donor. Having recovered from Covid a few months ago, Gogia donated her plasma and posted a picture along with FAQs related to plasma donation. She wanted to encourage recovered people who were hesitant about donating the antibody-rich plasma.
A corporate employee in an e-commerce organisation, Gogia was thankful to her company for giving her the information she needed for going ahead with her intention to donate plasma. “I enrolled for a donation and they registered my details,” said Gogia. The entire process was smooth, and she took a video of it to post on her social media profiles and to forward it on WhatsApp. “I also created an FAQ page with answers for a lot of general queries that people have about plasma donation,” said Gogia.
Nalini Menon too donated plasma two weeks ago having fully recovered from Covid in February. “The reason why I did this was to help someone I know who needed plasma. I mentioned this on social media.” She noted that many people were not keen to donate plasma. “The process takes a lot of time and many people are concerned they might get re-infected in the hospitals or while travelling,” said Menon, an HR executive.
Hoping in a similar way to motivate potential donors, Dr Sharang Madab posted about his act of donating plasma on his Facebook wall. “Plasma donations could save lives. When I found someone looking for a donor, I went ahead and assisted them.”
According to Dr Aqsa Shaikh, associate professor of community medicine at Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Jamia Hamdard, hesitancy about donating plasma rises from the fact that some people take a few months to fully recover and complain of fatigue for more days. “Hence they avoid giving plasma fearing that this will debilitate them further,” said Shaikh.