New norms for Corona 'Sanjeevini'

The Karnataka government on Monday issued guidelines for convalescent plasma therapy in line with the central government's policy.

As per the new guidelines, Covid Convalescent Plasma (CCP) therapy can be used on moderately affected patients with increasing need for oxygen. Failure of steroid therapy is not required before giving plasma. It should be done before the patient goes into organ failure.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had recently allowed 'Off Label' use of convalescent plasma in patients with moderate Covid-19 disease who are not improving despite use of steroids.

As per the Karnataka's government's latest guidelines, CCP therapy could be given along with other therapies like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. Patients should be closely monitored for adverse impact of plasma and thereby institute appropriate intervention. The guidelines state that the patient should not be allergic to immunoglobulins.

One or two therapeutic units of 200-250 ml each should be administered to the patients for two consecutive days, four hours apart, if the first unit is tolerated well, depending on the condition of the patient. The health department advises that donor CCP units provided to patients should preferably be from two different donors.

Blood banks should identify potential CCP donors from the list of Covid-19 recovered patients and recruit them as plasma donors. The blood bank should seek help and coordination of NGOs working in this direction.

Dr Vishal Rao, a part of Covid-19 consultative group and regional director - Head & Neck Surgical Oncology, HCG Global opined that they are looking for innovations.

"Plasma therapy has shown encouraging results in clinical trial settings, especially in critical Covid-19 patients. 95% of patients who recover well from Covid-19 can attempt to prevent 5% of fatalities. This will help to decrease the burden on the hospitals.

Faster recovery is expected to result in an earlier return to work and thus a lower socio-economic impact on families. Convalescent plasma is safe with no side-effects. The biggest setback in plasma therapy is it has no pharma promotion and backing. If it were packaged and sold like Remdesevir it may have necessary attention," Dr Rao stated.

"As India registers over 1.5 million coronavirus cases and we continue to see persistent spikes of the pandemic in Bengaluru, we need to strengthen our fight against the virus. Plasma therapy has shown encouraging results in clinical trial settings, especially in critical Covid-19 patients. We need more people who have recovered from the infection to donate plasma so that we can save innocent lives," he said.

Who can donate…

♦    Donors shall be males or nulliparous females of over 50 kg of body weight

♦    Donors shall be in the age group of 18 to 60

♦    Covid Convalescent Plasma (CCP) therapy can be used on moderately affected patients with increasing need for oxygen

♦    More than 250 registered donors have come forward to donate plasma

What is plasma?

Blood from people who have recovered is called convalescent plasma

Plasma is the liquid portion of the blood.

Convalescent plasma therapy can…

Given to people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus. It can help keep people who are moderately ill from becoming more ill and experiencing COVID-19 complications

How many can be treated with plasma from a donor?

Plasma from one patient recovered from Covid-19 can help two patients.

A patient needs only one transfusion to get enough antibodies to fight the virus

♦    Blood is taken from a previously infected but completely recovered patient, the plasma component of that blood is separated and that contains the antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 virus. This plasma is injected into an infected person's body that will fight the virus and neutralise it from spreading.