Aishila Kar, Amity University Kolkata
In New Delhi, since ILBS Hospital, initiates its plasma bank from July, requests have poured in continuously. Jai Prakash said that when someone close to you is about to die, you will take whatever form of hope you can find, age of 44, who obtained plasma last month for his mother at RML Hospital in Delhi. The plasma gave by those who got better from COVID, and which is theoretically devoted to anti-COVID antibodies, did not save his mother’s life. The complications finally claimed his mother’s life.
Many examples of unfavourable reactions and the incapability of plasma treatment to decrease the number of COVID mortality have been recorded in the ICMR’s PLACID trial. This is the largest trials of plasma therapy in the country, conducted public and private hospitals across India to understand the effectiveness of plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19. A total of 464 participants, all with moderate cases, were listed in the study. As a result, the ICMR has declared the possibility of removing plasma therapy as one of the treatments recommended in India’s clinical management for COVID-19. Dr J.C Passey said that every case of COVID-19 is different, and treatment is devised accordingly.
ICMR study noted that the PLACID trial results indicate that there was no difference in 28-day mortality to severe disease among moderately ill COVID-19 patients treated with plasma along with the best standard of care compared to the best standard of care alone. But, even as the government pulling back on plasma treatment, most doctors do not consider it to be a huge setback to the treatment.
Drugs like Remdesivir and HCQ (Hydroxychloroquine) are much more in use than plasma. The larger concern remains if the government will also remove Remdesivir and HCQ from the guidelines after the WHO solidarity trials registered them to be ineffective in the decrease of COVID mortality. With many hospitals having invested notably in procuring these medicines, the loss would be far greater than that of plasma.
Also read: One-pot Visual RT PCR as a diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2
SOURCE- The plasma dead end? | India Today Insight
https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/the-plasma-dead-end-1734979-2020-10-25
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