UP: Recovered COVID-19 patients donate plasma at KGMU

Two recovered coronavirus patients at the King George's Medical University in Lucknow have donated their plasma to treat severally-ill cases of COVID-19, doctors said on Tuesday.

"Two corona warriors, Faizan and Javed, donated their plasma late on Monday night after 'iftaar'. Faizan's plasma is AB positive while that of Javed is A positive, Dr Tulika Chandra, Head of Department of Transfusion Medicine, KGMU told PTI.

With this, five corona warriors have so far donated their plasma to the KGMU," Chandra added.

She said that the three other donors include KGMU's resident doctor Tauseef Khan, a woman doctor from Canada and another patient, who recovered from the disease.

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 doctor from Orai died on May 9 following a heart attack. 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.