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A 49-year-old patient was admitted to the Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket, on April 4, presenting moderate symptoms of COVID-19. By April 8, she had respiratory failure and required respiratory assistance. The hospital followed the procedures established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; he was being treated for symptoms and was on the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as well.
Still, it wasn’t improving. This is when the family stepped in and asked the hospital to try convalescent plasma therapy for compassionate reasons, as it is still an experimental technique in the context of COVID-19. They managed to find a donor and the transfusion took place on April 14.
Representative image. Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay.
The patient’s two parents had also contracted the new coronavirus. While her father unfortunately passed away earlier this month, her mother has recovered.
MyUpchar spoke with Dr. Sandeep Budhiraja, the group’s chief medical officer, Max Healthcare and senior director of the Institute of Internal Medicine, who oversaw blood plasma treatment, to learn more about the procedure.
The promise and limits of plasma therapy.
“Plasma therapy can be tried in moderate to severe cases. The patient in this case was experiencing respiratory distress, had developed acute pneumonia, and was not responding to other medications. However, it is not a therapy that works if the patient is on the edge, ”explained Dr. Budhiraja.
When asked if plasma therapy can be used preventively or prophylactically, the doctor said this was not the purpose of its application. “Plasma therapy can be considered as an additional support for the body when it is overcome by an acute infection. Antibodies from an external source can strengthen the body’s attack on the pathogen and help the patient overcome a difficult situation, “he said.
Who can donate blood plasma?
Convalescent plasma therapy, or passive antibody therapy, involves taking the blood plasma from a recovered patient and transferring it to an infected person. Antibodies produced by the survivor persist in the body for a period of time (depending on infection) and provide varying degrees of immunity by mounting a rapid attack in the event that the body finds the pathogen again.
“In this case, the donor had previously been infected with COVID-19 and subsequently tested negative twice. A healthy and adequate donor is one with no underlying conditions and that has been declared negative for at least two weeks. We also checked for hepatitis B, C and HIV, all of which was clear, ”he said.
He added that no serological (or antibody) tests could be performed, but it was reasonable to assume that the donor had enough antibodies since they had eliminated the disease.
The recuperation
The patient seemed to respond well to treatment and was gradually disconnected from the ventilator on April 18. As of Sunday, April 19, she was able to eat and has since tested negative. However, it is important that we also understand that plasma therapy is not a magic bullet. During patient treatment, other standard treatment protocols were followed. Plasma therapy could have worked as a catalyst to speed up your recovery. We cannot attribute recovery to plasma therapy completely, since there are multiple factors that marked that path, “added the doctor.
This is where clinical trials come in: controlled studies map causality and will help us understand to what extent plasma therapy can work. Trials are ongoing in India and abroad. Plasma therapy could hold promise until a vaccine is produced. Cases like these can stimulate scalability initiatives; blood banks could identify and collect plasma from COVID-19 survivors to provide compassionate cases and clinical trials.
For more information, read our article on passive antibody therapy.
Health articles on Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, India’s first and largest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to provide you with information about everything related to health.
Update date: April 22, 2020 18:20:11 IST
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