Urges cured patients to donate plasma for saving lives
United News of India
New Delhi, Apr 24: Chief Minister of New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, on Friday said initial results of plasma therapy in the treatment of four COVID-19 patients in Delhi are encouraging.
Addressing a press briefing on the initial positive results of the use of plasma treatment to COVID-19 patients, Kejriwal said that in the last few days, they have tried plasma therapy on four patients at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and it has yielded positive results.
He appealed to the recovered patients to donate their plasma to help other patients recover and contain the fatalities caused due the deadly virus.
Kejriwal also said that Delhi would seek Union Government’s permission to use plasma therapy for all serious covid patients based on the next trials of the therapy.
“Our efforts in the fight against Corona are two-fold, one, how to contain the spread of Corona which includes social distancing, lockdown and various other measures, and two, how to control the deaths caused by the pandemic,” Kejriwal said.
A few days back, the Delhi Chief Minister had informed the media that the Central Government had permitted the Delhi government to try plasma therapy on the patients recovering from Corona.
“Once a person recovers from Corona, anti-bodies are formed in his blood, which is then transferred into a recovering person’s body. We got the trial permission for patients admitted to the LNJP hospital, and we have tried the therapy on four patients and the results are satisfactory. We have Dr S K Sarin, who is the head of ILBS hospital, and is monitoring the whole project,” Kejriwal said.
“ILBS functions as an autonomous body under the Delhi government, and a team of senior doctors are leading the plasma therapy project. Our initial plan was to use plasma therapy as per the age-old traditions, as it had also been used in the 1900s,’ Dr Sarin said.
He said this virus has three phases, first is when the virus enters the body, second is the pulmonary phase which affects the lungs and causes difficulty in breathing and the third phase is when cytokines are released which produce substances that can kill the virus.
