COVID-19: First patient to receive plasma therapy in Uttar Pradesh dies of heart attack

A COVID-19 patient who was the first to be given the plasma therapy treatment in Uttar Pradesh died of a heart attack on Saturday. However, the patient tested negative twice before the cardiac arrest that led to his death. The 58-year-old patient who was a doctor by profession, was admitted to Lucknow's King George's Medical University (KGMU).

The patient was on ventilator for the last 14 days and died on Saturday evening following a heart attack, KGMU Vice-Chancellor MLB Bhatt said. The patient was in a stable condition. His lungs had improved, but he later developed a urinary tract infection. Two reports of his samples came out as negative (for COVID-19) on Saturday, the vice-chancellor said. 

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"When the patient was given plasma therapy, his condition was very bad. His lungs had improved. But as he was an old patient with diabetes, he was kept on the ventilator," Tulika Chandra of Blood Transfusion Department, KGMU said.

Although the virus has no formulated cure, plasma therapy has been said to have yielded positive results in the recovery of the COVID-19 patients. The blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 develops antibodies to fight the virus. This therapy uses the antibodies from the blood of a cured patient to treat another critical patient. 

However, experts have maintained that although plasma therapy has given good results, there is not much data available on it and no randomised control trials have been done with the therapy. Hence, it is not advisable to use the therapy as a regular treatment for the virus.

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The Union health ministry has also advised against considering the therapy to be a regular treatment for Coronavirus, adding it should be used for research and trial purposes until there is robust scientific evidence to support its efficacy.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India is nearing the 60,000 mark. The nation has recorded 59,662 cases as on Saturday, of which 39,834 cases are active while 17847 have been recovered and about 1981 people have died due to the virus.

(With PTI inputs)