Plasma therapy not advisable for COVID patients, say experts

Plasma therapy not advisable for COVID patients, say experts

Specialists share best practices in treating the disease

31/05/2021

Sumit BhattacharjeeVISAKHAPATNAM

A couple of days back, Vijay (name changed), an employee of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, had to run from pillar to post to acquire two units of plasma, as doctors in a private hospital treating his father with COVID-19, had asked him to get them on an emergency basis. With great difficulty, he could manage by paying ₹35,000 for two units in the grey market.

This is the case in the city, when world over the use of Convalescent Plasma for treating COVID-19 patients has already been called off.

“There is enough data to suggest that CPT has no role in treating COVID-19 patients,” said Dr. Laxmi Narayana R. Buddharaju from University of Nebraska Medical Centre.

“We have already stopped the use of CPT in the western world and even ICMR has also done enough evidence-based study to suggest the same,” he added. According to Dr. Sudhakar, the Principal of Andhra Medical College and District COVID special officer, ICMR had already issued an advisory stating that indiscriminate use of CPT in coronavirus-infected patients was not advisable.

There was a time when it was recommended, but those were in the initial phase of the pandemic. “Now we have enough data that negates that understanding,” said Dr. Ram Kairam, paediatric neurologist, Texas, U.S.A. “In the initial days, treatment of COVID-19 was on an experimental basis and we at KGH bought a machine for ₹40 lakh for extraction of plasma. But now those theories have proved to be unfounded and we have evidence to suggest that it is not effective,” said Dr. Sudhakar