After seven more deaths Saturday, desperate Gujarat seeks to start plasma transfusion

Ahmedabad: With the death toll due to Covid-19 shooting up to 48 on Saturday, a note of desperation has crept into voices of frontline medics in Gujarat.

Seven fatalities were recorded on Saturday, five of them from Ahmedabad, and one each in Vadodara and Surat, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said.
All of them were in the senior age category: a 68-year-old woman with hypertension and TB; a 72-year-old woman with renal complaints; a 65-year-old woman with hypertension; a 50-year-old woman with mental illness, and a 70-year-old woman with a heart ailment.

The arrival of fresh coronavirus positive cases too has picked up, rising to 1,272 after 176 new cases were reported on Saturday.

Of these, Ahmedabad reported 142 new COVID-19 cases, and a majority of these are from the city's COVID-19 hotspot areas, Ravi said.

In desperation, the Gujarat government has decided to carry out plasma transfusion treatment on COVID-19 patients in the state, particularly those in a critical condition, to boost their immunity.

In this treatment, the plasma extracted from the blood of a fully recovered COVID-19 patient is injected into the critical patient to help his body generate antibodies to fight the virus.

An antibody is a protein produced in the human body by plasma cells that is used by the immune system to neutralize bacteria and viruses.

The civil hospital in Ahmedabad and the civic body-run SVP Hospital here have prepared a detailed proposal on plasma transfusion for coronavirus patients and submitted it to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for approval, principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said.

Gujarat is encouraged by ICMR’s approval to the Kerala government for plasma transfusion treatment.

Both the Ahmedabad civil hospital and SVP Hospital ready to start it. They have already sent their proposals for approval," Ravi added.

"An antibody is generated by the human body to fight a virus. Those who are fully recovered have such antibody protein in their blood plasma. We will take it from them and transfuse it into those who are critical and on ventilator support.
"That plasma will help the patient to generate antibodies to fight coronavirus," she said.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, which runs SVP Hospital, has already taken consent of some plasma donors.

"SVP Hospital is ready to start plasma treatment once we get permission from ICMR. We have also convinced some donors, who are fully recovered from coroavirus infection, to give their plasma for treatment of others," Ahmedabad
Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said.