After the
eruption and spread of coronavirus in the world, people came to know the names
of drugs like Hydroxychloroquine in first wave and Remdesivir in second wave.
Treatment like plasma therapy also make in headlines to counter coronavirus in
first wave.
Kerala and Delhi governments gave importance to plasma therapy and
made an appeal to coronavirus survivors to donate antibodies for covid
patients. Now, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to drop
the use of convalescent plasma from the recommended guidelines of covid-19.
Plasma therapy
extracts antibodies from coronavirus survivors and transfuses them to an
infected patient. Experts had concerns over the efficacy of plasma therapy and its
inappropriate use to treat patients. Last year, the ICMR, in one of the
definitive clinical trials in the world, demonstrated that Convalescent Plasma
Therapy (CPT) neither saved lives nor improved patient outcomes but was
equivocal about it in public. Scientists have been warning against the
irrational use of plasma therapy and have also been saying that it was
ineffective.Studies
conducted in the US and UK are also pointing to wanton use of plasma therapy
for causing the virus to mutate into more severe strains, which could further
prolong the pandemic. The decision comes after India’s Covid-19 task force
reviewed the effectiveness of plasma therapy on May 14th. Last year,
there was a lot of hype and hope about plasma therapy as a cure of covid. Trials
conducted on 11K volunteers across 40 hospitals revealed plasma therapy did not
reduce a patient’s mortality rate.
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