HYDERABAD: A coronavirus patient who was the first person to undergo plasma therapy after Sindh government gave green signal to test the therapy has fully recovered from the virus.
The patient tested negative for the virus on Thursday.
Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) confirmed that the infected lawyer, who had been critically ill before receiving plasma therapy 12 days ago, had recovered.
The lawyer belonged to Sanghar but resided in Hyderabad. He was admitted to the LUH along with his wife and son, both of whom had also tested positive for the contagious disease.
He was the first COVID-19 patient to receive plasma after the Sindh government approved LUH, among other hospitals in the province, for clinical trials of the passive immunisation technique. The plasma was donated by a recovered coronavirus patient to the Research and Diagnostic laboratory at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro.
Passive immunization through plasma therapy is not a new medical treatment and has been done for the last 125 years. The therapy was used to cure patients of diseases like SARS, Ebola and influenza in the recent past.
At present, the method is being used at 1,500 hospitals in some 80 countries to cure the coronavirus patients. Pakistan is also conducting its clinical trials.
