BENGALURU: Doctors at Victoria Hospital, along with oncologist Dr US Vishal Rao of HCG Hospital, made a call for recovered Covid patients to donate their blood plasma to help test others seriously affected by the disease. Accordingly, clinical trials on using convalescent plasma to treat Covid patients began with two donors on Monday.
Doctors opined that Karnataka has not only seen many patients, but has had an excellent recovery rate. Bengaluru and Mysuru together have seen the maximum number of patients hit by the pandemic, explained Dr Vishal Rao, adding, “That also means we now have the largest pool of recovered patients who can become donors and help those who are severely ill.”
The state government was permitted to start clinical trials recently, and the medical fraternity has been banking on this as a treatment option to save the severely ill patients.“We are asking all eligible donors to come forward so that we can treat as many patients as possible,” he said, explaining, “As part of the treatment, the patient is transfused with the donor’s plasma with the goal of using the latter’s antibodies to help clear the virus more rapidly and help decrease the need for ICU beds and ventilators.”
Plasma drawn from one recovered patient can help cure two patients.