VIJAYAWADA: Out of the total Covid count of 7,44,864 in the State, 6,91,040 patients have recovered so far. But the number of plasma donors is less than 10,000. The `5,000 incentive announced by the State government to encourage plasma donation has not resulted in any considerable rise in the number of donors.
However, the Health and Medical Department officials maintained that they stipulated certain inclusion and exclusion criteria to receive plasma donation. The number of those meeting the criteria is less compared to total recoveries.
Stating that plasma therapy has been given to more than 1,000 Covid-19 patients in the State so far, AP State Nodal Officer Dr K Rambabu said apart from the availability of 2,586 units of plasma in all the plasma banks, they have also got the consent from 6,364 people recovered from Covid for plasma donation. However, 22,166 recovered patients, who are fit to donate plasma, are still reluctant to donate plasma. Though the number of recoveries is over 7,000 per day, 500 odd of them are eligible for plasma donation four weeks after recovery.
“We have developed a plasma bank application with certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. After the discharge of a Covid patient, his details will be entered into the plasma bank app. The names of patients will get deleted automatically from the list of those eligible for plasma donation based on the details like age, comorbidities and others. The names of people of above 55 years of age and below 18 years and also those with hypertension, heart problems and other health issues, will be deleted from the list of eligible donors. When it comes to women, plasma will be collected only from the unmarried and those above 18 years of age. The number of people fit for plasma donation cannot be compared with the total recoveries, he said.
After all these filtrations, staff of the call centre will make a call to those meeting the eligibility criteria and seek their response whether they are willing to donate plasma or not. They will provide the information of those willing to donate plasma to all the plasma banks across the State, he explained.
“As of now, we have more than 2,500 plasma units and also got the consent of 6,364 people to donate plasma. Hence, there is no dearth of stock at present and plasma therapy will be administered to all the needy patients,” he said.