MYSURU: In a major boost to plasma therapy for critically-ill Covid patients in Mysuru, the first-ever plasma extracting machine is now operational in the city. A new Apheresis machine to extract plasma is now functional at city-based Jeevadhara blood bank. The machine was recently brought from Maharashtra, which was formally inaugurated here, on Friday. It can extract plasma from five to six people a day.
The state-of-the-art machine, which would collect plasma using a cell-separating machine, was procured by Jeevadhara blood bank on Sayyaraji Rao Road due to the high demand of plasma from recovered patients. This is probably the first-ever machine in Mysuru to receive permission from the Drugs controller General of India (DGCI) and to be purchased at a cost of Rs 16-17 lakh.MUDA chairman H V Rajeev, BJP City president Srivatsa and others inaugurated this new facility in the city.
S E Girish, trustee of the blood bank said, “Unlike other processes where 350 to 400 ml blood is collected from a recovered patient which yields only 150 to 200 ml plasma, with this machine, 500 ml plasma can be directly extracted from the donor. The donor can donate again after 15 days which is not possible in the former method, where donors cannot donate blood for 90 days.”