The therapy

The side-effects

Risks for Covid-19 patients

NEW DELHI: As the world races for coronavirus vaccine, plasma therapy is being tried as a temporary treatment to help patients recover. India too has started plasma therapy trials with hospitals in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh taking the lead. Other states and UTs are either awaiting approval from the ICMR or have got approval but have not yet started administering plasma yet. Though government hospitals have applied, they were still awaiting permission.Here is all you need to know about plasma therapy:* Entails giving patients a transfusion with plasma (or serum) from those who have developed antibodies to a virus or bacteria.* This process grants the patient some passive immunity. Convalescent blood is an option if there are no medicines or vaccine to treat an infectious disease.* The first valid trial was done in 1892 for diphtheria, using serum from animals.* No definitive studies exist showing effectiveness. In case of dengue, convalescent serum was found to make patients worse, as it led the virus to replicate.* There could be transfusion-associated reactions. Unknown pathogens could be transferred into a patient during transfusion.* Potential risks of therapy remain unknown. US FDA rules say suitable donors are those whose infection began 28 days prior.* A study from Wuhan published in March showed that 10 adults who were severely ill with Covid-19 tolerated the transfusion well and started developing antibodies that helped reduce the viral load within seven days.