Plasma therapy trial to start next week
The government is hopeful that it would be able to "experimentally start" using convalescent plasma therapy for treating coronavirus patients from next week.
"We have completed all the procedures," Prof MA Khan, a haematologist at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, has told The Daily Star.
He urged the patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to enlist their names with the blood transfusion department at Dhaka Medical College to donate their plasma.
The government on April 18 formed a four-member technical committee led by Prof Khan to prepare a "study protocol" of plasma therapy and a guideline for this treatment method.
The committee submitted the report on April 27 recommending that the method be launched in the country as it had been approved globally for its ability to quickly develop a passive immune system in a patient to fight against Covid-19.
The Food and Drug Administration approved plasma therapy for the US on April 4, for it had not found any side-effect of the method. Indian Council of Medical Research approved it on May 8.
Even in Bangladesh, a 66-year-old doctor infected with Covid-19 has shown signs of improvement after receiving the therapy.
He was admitted to Evercare Hospital on April 25 and given the therapy on May 4 and 5.
"He is out of ventilation service now and doing quite well," Dr Arif Mahmud, head of medical service at Evercare hospital, said yesterday.
About a century-old convalescent plasma therapy has shown some efficacy in treating measles, chickenpox and rabies.
The therapy involves taking antibodies from the blood of a person who has recovered from Covid-19 and transfusing the antibodies into an active coronavirus patient to help improve the latter's immune system to fight the infection.
"Plasma taken from one blood donor can be used for treating two patients. But the unfortunate part is that people are not aware of it," said Md Ashraful Hoque, assistant professor at the blood transfusion department of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
He said people should be made aware of this treatment and the recovered patients should voluntarily come forward to tackle the pandemic.
Joarder Rakeen Manzoor, a doctor who recently recovered from Covid-19, has donatedhis plasma to Sheikh Hasina burn unit plasma bank.
"The number of case is increasing. Many are not getting proper treatment … If my donation helps a patient or saves anyone's life, I would conceive my life to be a success," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
He also encouraged other recovered patients to donate their plasma.
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