UP: 21-yr-old recovered COVID-19 patient donates plasma at KGMU

A 21-year-old man, who defeated COVID-19, has donated his plasma at the King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow to treat severally-ill coronavirus patients, a hospital official said.

A total of seven people have donated their plasma at the KGMU so far, the official said, adding that they have been kept in a plasma bank and can be used anytime for the next one year.

Yash Thakur, the recovered patient, donated his plasma on Friday night His blood group is O positive which is quite rare, the head of the KGMU blood transfusion medicine department Tulika Chandra said on Saturday.

There are 17 coronavirus patients admitted in the KGMU including two women but none of them require plasma therapy. So, the KGMU administration has decided that serious patients admitted in hospitals in other districts, who require plasma therapy, should be brought here, Chandra said.

Plasma therapy trials are currently underway at the KGMU.

On April 27, a 58-year-old doctor from Orai in Jalaun district became the first recipient of plasma therapy and the donor was the woman doctor from Canada, the first COVID-19 patient admitted to KGMU.

However, the patient passed away after suffering a heart attack on May 9.

The KGMU had later said that two corona reports of the deceased were negative.

Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for treating COVID-19 patients.

In this treatment, plasma, a blood component, from a cured patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient.

The blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 develops antibodies to fight the virus.

This therapy uses the antibodies from the blood of a cured patient to treat another critical patient.

The Union health ministry, however, has advised against considering the therapy to be regular treatment for coronavirus, adding it should be used for research and trial purposes till there is a robust scientific evidence to support its efficacy.