Patiala Govt Medical College begins plasma therapy process

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 27

The Government Medical College, Patiala, has already started the process of convalescent plasma therapy for critical Covid-19 patients.

In the therapy, plasma, a component of blood, of the recovered Covid-19 patients is used to treat moderately severe coronavirus patients.

A few weeks ago, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given its nod to the Punjab Government to conduct the trial of this therapy.

The process of drawing plasma was conducted under the guidance of Dr RPS Sibia, Professor & Head, Department of Medicine, and Dr Rajni Bassi, Transfusion Medicine Specialist.

It is pertinent to mention that this procedure is being done for the first time in the state.

Dr RPS Sibia said: “The aim of the procedure is to assess the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy.”

Talking about today’s procedure, he said they drew the plasma from a fully recovered Covid-19 patient, who got his treatment at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, itself.

“First, we had to motivate the donor to donate his plasma for the trial. We told him that it is safe to donate plasma,” said Sibia.

Sibia further said: “At present, there is no critical Covid-19 patient at Rajindra Hospital. However, the collected plasma can be used to treat severe Covid patients at any of the selected institutions to carry out the therapy by the ICMR.”

Dr Rajni Bassi told that plasma had been drawn as per the stipulated protocol and would be stored at minus 80°C, which would be used to treat moderately sick Covid-19 patients.

She hoped that the use of convalescent plasma would improve the clinical outcomes in Covid-19 patients with moderate disease.

She said: “At present, we (Government Medical College, Patiala) are the first one to start the process of plasma therapy out of the selected institutes in the state.”