HUBBALLI: Doctors at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) hospital are approaching persons recovered from Covid-19 from neighbouring districts for blood donation in order to conduct plasma therapy on existing patients.
The Indian Council of Medical Research has given its nod for plasma therapy for treating Covid-19 patients. But the plasma should be extracted from the recovered symptomatic patient only. Of the 27 recovered in Dharwad district, a few of them are symptomatic.
KIMS doctors initially failed to convince them to donate the blood. A KIMS doctor said, “During treatment, the infected agrees to donate blood. But once he/she gets recovered and discharged, they won’t respond to repeated requests. Since blood donation is a personal choice, no one can force them.” Finally, they convinced a local recovered patient to donate blood.
The plasma extracted was used to treat a patient. Dr Ram Kaulgud, principal investigator of plasma therapy at KIMS said, “There are two more patients here who need plasma therapy, but there is no availability. We have been approaching cured patients in neighbouring districts too.”