Rajasthan seeks ICMR approval to begin trials for plasma therapy

The Rajasthan government has approached the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for permission to begin plasma therapy trails for several ill coronavirus disease patients at Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh hospital.

Clinical trials of convalescent plasma therapy are underway in several states across the country and have shown encouraging results so far, the state government officials said.

“Plasma therapy could prove beneficial for critical Covid-19 patients and reduce the mortality rate, as no vaccine or anti-viral agents are available yet to treat the viral outbreak,” Dr Sunita Bundas, in-charge of SMS Hospital’s blood bank.

“SMS Hospital staff, who have recovered from Covid-19, can become donors for patients suffering from the viral infection,” she said.

Dr Sudhir Bhandari, principal of SMS Medical College, said, “The process hasn’t yet begun. We’re hopeful of getting the ICMR’s approval. We’ll start the therapy with critical patients.”

The state government has formed a team of doctors from the SMS Hospital to do a feasibility study on plasma therapy on critical patients.

The team, comprising Dr Bhandari, Dr Bundas, professor of medicine Dr Raman Sharma and senior physician Dr Ajeet Singh, has agreed to opt for plasma therapy after conducting research and tests for a week.

“An antibody is a passive vaccine that helps to bring down the viral load in a patient. It is given through blood transfusion and it fights and neutralises the virus,” Dr Sharma said.

“The concept of plasma therapy is to inject antibodies taken from the plasma of a recovered Covid-19 patient into a positive patient to fight the disease,” he said.

Dr Sharma pointed out that the convalescent plasma therapy was tried in the Spanish Flu, which ravaged the globe in 1918, and it helped lower the mortality rate by 20%.

The trails for plasma therapy have already begun in Delhi, Kerala, and Karnataka.

The state has so far reported 2,059 positive Covid-19 cases and 32 deaths.