BENGALURU: The Karnataka government will inaugurate the state’s first plasma bank on Tuesday. It will also unveil plasma treatment protocol and an online registry that will help doctors identify Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms, and treat them on priority. Dr US Vishal Rao, regional director of head and neck surgical oncology and robotic surgery, HCG Cancer Centre and a member of the Covid-19 consultative group, said, “We have prepared protocol to help streamline requests. This includes an online registry to place requests for plasma transfusion. It will also help us prioritise critical and severe patients.”
The protocol also protects the privacy of donors. “Data privacy is also included in the standard operating procedure so that no black market is created, wherein touts get involved, as it happened in Delhi. A team of experts headed by Dr Sachin Jadhav, head of haematology at HCG Group of Hospitals, will provide tele-consultation and hand-holding for other hospitals who want to know when and how to administer plasma,” he said.
Plasma therapy involves administering the plasma of a person who recovered from Covid-19 to a person who is suffering from the disease. Antibodies developed by the cured patient aid recovery in people who suffering from the disease.Dr Rao said plasma therapy trials are promising. “Historical data as well as our own data has shown that plasma therapy is working. Five of 8 patients who undergo plasma therapy have recovered. As it is not a big commercial venture, it does not get due attention and remains the least used weapon in Covid-19 treatment,” Dr Rao said.
Meanwhile, Dr Rao and his team are also experimenting with cytokine therapy for patients with mild to moderate symptoms. They have sought permission from the Drug Controller General of India to start Phase-2 trials, which will be the real litmus test of its efficacy in treating Covid-19. In Phase 1, cytokine therapy was only used on healthy patients. Cytokine therapy helps activate immunity by enhancing interferon production in the early stages of the disease.