Dr Tahir Shamsi – head of National Institute of Blood Disease & Bone Marrow Transplantation (NIBD & BMT), on Wednesday, highlighted the dire need of plasma donations from recovered coronavirus patients.
Expressing concern on the shortage of plasma for treating coronavirus, Dr Shamsi stated that coronavirus patients who have recovered from the disease must donate their plasma as ‘two lives can be saved via plasma of one recovered patient of coronavirus’.
“Till now we have given plasma to more than 200 patients in the country,” he said.
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A person can donate plasma a second time after a gap of one week, and 80 per cent of the coronavirus patients usually recover after plasma therapy, he added.
Furthermore, the head of NIBD highlighted the lack of facilities and proper mechanism to collect plasma donations stating, “We do not have the facilities to collect plasma. Those who are donating plasma are not listening to us. We are appealing for the sake of humanity but we are not getting a response from them.”
It is to be noted that plasma – which is rich in antibodies, is taken from the blood of patients who have already recovered from the disease and can help other patients recover substantially at a faster rate than with various traditional treatments.
