UP’s first COVID-19 patient to undergo plasma therapy stable, say doctors

A 58-year-old doctor, the first COVID-19 patient in Uttar Pradesh to undergo plasma therapy, is stable and continues to be on ventilator support 13 days after the experimental treatment began, doctors said on Friday. The patient from Orai in Uttar Pradesh was admitted to the King George Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow on April 26.

"After 13 days, the condition of the patient is stable and he is still on ventilator. We can’t say when he will be discharged," KGMU Vice Chancellor M L B Bhatt said.

Dr Tulika Chandra of Blood Transfusion department, KGMU said, "When the patient was given plasma therapy his condition was very bad. Now his lungs have improved. But as he is old and has diabetes, he has been kept on ventilator. A team of doctors are keeping an eye on him."

The patient was administered plasma donated by a doctor from Canada who was the first COVID-19 patient admitted to KGMU and later recovered. Convalescent plasma therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma, a blood component, from a cured patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient.

The blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 develops antibodies to fight the virus. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a cured coronavirus patient to treat another critical patient.

The process of donating plasma is similar to that of donating blood and takes about an hour. Union health ministry had advised against considering plasma therapy to be regular treatment for coronavirus and said that it should be used for research and trial purposes till there's robust scientific evidence to support its efficacy.