The Union government on their Tuesday address said the plasma therapy is still in the experimental stage. Until it is approved no one should use it for the treatment of coronavirus patients. This can be harmful to the patient and is illegal.

Health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal today said the plasma therapy is in the experimental stage. There is no evidence in the past that this could be used as a treatment of coronavirus infection.

“Plasma therapy is in the experimental stage but not enough evidence now to claim it can be used as a treatment for COVID-19 patients,” Lav Agarwal said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is the pinnacle body in India for medical research. It launched a study of national level. In this study, the effectiveness of this therapy is described said the health joint secretary.

He further added that until ICMR reach to the conclusion of its study and an authentic scientific proof is available, plasma therapy should be used only for research or trial purpose.

“It’s still in the experimental stage, right now even ICMR is doing it as an experiment to identify and do additional understanding of this therapy. Till it is approved no one should use it, it’ll be harmful to patient and illegal,” Lav Agarwal said.

If plasma therapy is not used properly under proper guideline then it can lead to life-threatening complications, Lav Agarwal added.

The therapy involves transfusion of antibody-rich plasma, a component of blood, from recovered patients of Covid-19 into those who are critically ill with the disease.

ICMR Statement

“It has been tried in China and other countries, and we wanted to see how it works in our population. Those who will be transfused convalescent plasma will be given in a study mode. One should understand it is not to be given to everyone as a treatment modality. There is not adequate evidence yet on its efficacy, so there’s a need to generate more data. Those who want to be a part of this trial will have to seek the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s (CDSCO) approval,” said a senior ICMR official.

ICMR, in its circular, said: “Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) is an experimental procedure for critically ill COVID-19 patients. Hospitals and institutions planning to provide this modality of treatment should do so in a clinical trial with protocols which are cleared by the Institutional Ethics Committee. The protocols should be registered with the Clinical Trial Registry of India, and approved by Drugs Controller General of India, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, and mechanisms to report adverse and serious adverse events to the CDSCO should be put in place.”

Plasma Therapy

This therapy’s mechanism is simple and is based on the blood of a patient who has recovered from COVID-19. It contains antibodies with the specific ability to fight novel coronavirus. The theory is that the recovered patient’s antibodies are transfused into somebody under treatment. It will begin its work and will fight the novel coronavirus in the second patient.