by Sachin Murdeshwar

Mumbai :  India is reeling under coronavirus, for more than 2 months. To fight coronavirus, Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central, who is at the forefront of healthcare, has got approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct convalescent plasma therapy trials on patients infected with coronavirus, making it the among the few private hospitals in Mumbai to independently start the trials. Soon, it will conduct trials on 20 patients to ascertain the success of plasma therapy. The hospital is already at the forefront of treating patients with coronavirus since April and has treated around 500 patients so far.

 

Convalescent plasma therapy tends to involve transfusing plasma from the blood of those patients who have recovered from COVID-19 into patients who are moderately or critically ill due to this virus. The plasma of the recovered patient contains antibodies that fight Covid-19 infection thus when injected into the bloodstream of a positive patient will help fight the infection again.

 

According to the findings published in The American Journal of Pathology, researchers from the Houston Methodist Hospital in the US carried out clinical trials to transfuse plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients into critically ill patients and found it to be a safe treatment option. Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central, has collected plasma from donors and would be commencing the trials soon.

 

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved our application to initiate convalescent plasma therapy trials, last week. In April, the Government of India and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) came up with the proposal to start the convalescent plasma trial and interested hospitals had to apply for approval. “Many coronavirus patients require hospitalization and some even become critical and need ICU support. Since there is no standardized treatment available across the world, multiple drugs and therapies are used in combination to treat this disease and this plasma trial is a step in that direction” said Dr. Kedar Toraskar, Chief of Critical Care, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai Central

 

This plasma therapy has been used in treating various infectious diseases such as Ebola virus outbreaks previously. Based on that, this therapy is being initiated now,” underscored Dr. Behram Pardiwala, Principal Investigator of the Plasma trial, Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central

 

“We have tied up with a blood bank where our donors donate their plasma and as per the trial requirements, the plasma will be given to suitable patients. After identifying a donor we take his consent and he/she undergoes all the required tests like pre-screening of antibodies before taking up the patient for plasma donation.  We collect around 500 ml plasma per donor and the dosing will be given by our clinicians as per our approved protocol. Moreover, the person can donate plasma once, in a month,”concluded Dr. Parag Rindani, Centre Head, Wockhardt Hospitals.