Convalescent plasma therapy saves COVID-19 patient in Kerala

According to PTI, a 51 year old covid-19 patient from Kerala has recovered from coronavirus infection after receiving convalescent plasma therapy at a government hospital in Thrissur, a first ever instance in Kerala using the experimental medical technique.

The recipient, who was taken off the ventilator support after being with it for almost a week.Doctors said that they had infused the anti bodies of a person in patient’s blood and consequently he was saved from the disease. The man is now recovering in the ICU, doctors said.

The therapy involves separation of anti bodies from a person cured of coronavirus and its subsequent infusion into the COVID-19 patient in a critical condition. Performed as a medical emergency, the technique was used at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Thrissur.

The beneficiary was a Delhi-returned Malayali. He tested positive on June 6 and faced acute respiratory complications five days later, and since then he was on support of the ventilator. On June 11 night, the patient was exposed to the convalescent plasma collection therapy that lasted till day break.

“The procedure requires volunteers who have recovered from COVID-19 and are above the age of 18. They can donate plasma, the yellowish liquid component of the blood, between the first and fourth months after cure,” said M A Andrews, Principal of GMC in a statement issued by National Health Mission’s Arogya Keralam.

The therapy has proven its potential and provided the COVID-19 patient a new life, the doctor said. Convalescent plasma therapy depends on an apparatus called apheresis that separates the plasma from the donor’s blood.

Unlike the usual blood donation, the remainder here returns to the donor’s circulation. “In one go, we take 400 grams of plasma. And transfuse it into the COVID-19 patient in two phases of 200 grams each,” Andrews said. “The therapy has absolutely no side effects,” he added.