BENGALURU: With the inauguration of clinical trials of convalescent plasma therapy at Victoria Hospital on Saturday, four recovered patients have come forward as donors for the plasma therapy. Among the four, one has confirmed to get the therapy done and the clinical trial on him will begin on Monday.
The donor, who has come forward is a 40-year-old, senior HR professional from Bangalore who recently recovered from COVID-19.
Dr Vishal Rao, Regional Director- Head Neck Surgical Oncology and Robotic Surgery, Associate Dean-Centre of Academic Research, HCG Cancer Centre who is leading the clinical trials in association with Bangalore Medical College And Research Institute said, "One good samaritan donor has come forward for the plasma therapy. He has fully agreed upon to have it done. Apart from him three more have come forward, however, they haven't enrolled completely yet, we need to give them counselling and take their consent and see if they are ok with it. We have so reached out to 140 discharged patients for the plasma therapy," said Dr Rao.
Rao added, "We hadn't even contacted the donor, he mailed me stating that he is interested in it and wants to know more. Once we spoke to him, he was convinced enough. We need more donors like him which will help the other patients. Further, the patient can be eligible for the clinical trials only if he or she has completed more than two weeks after getting the infection".
He further pointed out that it just takes one hour for the donation process. "The donation takes just one hour and giving it to the patient takes one more hour. Once the donation is done, it can be immediately given to another patient. And the donor will not have any problem, it is completely safe. As of now, as per the protocol, we have decided that for one patient it will be one donor," Rao said.
A separate block is identified in HCG Hospital for donors. This block is cordoned off and it is only restricted for donor patients.
Rao further pointed out that they will soon come forward with hotline number where donors can reach out to them and ask any queries they wish to and get it answered immediately. " We have created a donor protocol standard operating procedure on how the donors can donate. And a hotline number for them to reach out to us. We will be working jointly with the Indian Institute of Science and National Institute of Virology who will guide us with the plasma therapy. A lot more things are on pipeline with regard to this and we are working on it," he added.
Regarding the plasma, he said, that the plasma of a recovered patient contains antibodies and proteins that can help in fighting diseases or viruses which is the convalescent plasma. This can be given to critically ill patients infected with COVID-19.
Speaking at the inauguration, Medical Education Minister Dr K. Sudhakar said “This is a historical moment for the state and confident that Plasma therapy helps serious Covid19 affected to recover. I have always maintained that Plasma treatment is very effective for the patients in critical condition and relieved when we got permission for trials and able to commence trials in just 3-4 days after receiving permission from Centre”.
It can be recalled that Directorate of Public Health under Union Government has recently accorded permission for using Plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid19 patients in Karnataka. Dr Vishal Rao of Bangalore Institute of Oncology was given permission to conduct clinical trial on this. Plasma therapy was effectively used in the past during Ebola and Spanish flu pandemic.