Indiscriminate use of Plasma Therapy
What is convalescent plasma?
- Blood plasma is a yellowish liquid that makes up about half the blood volume. After a virus, your plasma contains antibodies that help fight infection.
- People who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies to the disease in their blood. Doctors call this convalescent plasma.
- Researchers hope that convalescent plasma can be given to people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus.
- Everyone who has suffered from a disease possibly carries what are called neutralising antibodies that when extracted via plasma and transfused on to others with the infection can help their immune system fight it off.
Why in News?
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has warned against indiscriminate use of convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) for treating COVID-19.
About the warning
- The report concluded that the therapy did not lead to a reduction in progression to severe COVID or all-cause mortality in the group that received CPT as compared to the group that did not receive CPT.
- Benefits of CPT in improving the clinical outcomes, reducing severity of disease, duration of hospitalisation and mortality in patients were dependent on the concentration of specific antibodies in convalescent plasma that could neutralise the effects of SARS-CoV-2.
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