The Telangana government should focus on using plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients as its success rate seems to be higher, suggested Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy.
Mr. Narayana Reddy, who has just recovered from coronavirus, said that the trials of plasma therapy conducted last month were reportedly successful with many critical patients. In the absence of a vaccine or medicine, the results of plasma therapy, so far, have been highly encouraging.
In plasma therapy, plasma of a person who has recovered from COVID-19, is drawn and transferred to people who have freshly contracted the disease as the same has sufficient antibodies to fight it.
He said that the authorities were not finding enough plasma donors and the government should constitute a team of expert counsellors to convince recovered patients to donate their plasma. “People who have recovered from COVID carry the highest antibodies after two to three weeks of testing negative,” he said.
Mr. Reddy pointed out that a critically-ill COVID patient from Hyderabad had fully recovered after receiving convalescent plasma therapy approved by the ICMR. Trials were started on May 11 and the patient recovered in 10 days. “Two units of plasma are required for each patient and therefore two donors are needed to treat one critically ill-patient,” he said, adding that he was ready to donate the plasma if he fulfilled the criteria set by ICMR.
He also said that the ESIC and Gandhi Medical College were among the institutions that had ICMR approval to conduct plasma therapy trials. Instead of targeting Telangana government’s failures for political gains, the Central government should take measures to plug the loopholes to save lives, he said.
