First Plasma therapy session for COVID19 patients in Udaipur to take place today

Raunak Suhalka first cured COVID19 patient in Mewar region to donate Plasma for therapy. Raunak and his family were diagnosed with COVID19 in the first week of May 2020

By UdaipurTimes Team Jul 28, 2020, 13:28 IST

What is Plasma therapy and who can donat and when - Read on...

The first Plasma therapy session for COVI19 patients will be done today at RNT Medical College. RNT Udaipur will be the second hospital in Rajasthan to use this technique to treat the serious COVID patients.

Raunak Suhalka, a cured symptomatic COVID positive patient donated Plasma at the medical college on Monday, becoming the first plasma donor in this region. Raunak and his family were diagnosed with COVID in early May. Raunak said seeing the increasing number of cases and deaths in the district; he decided to donate plasma so that this treatment could be effected to serious patients.

47 COVID patients have been treated in SMS Medical College Jaipur and a majority of them have recovered.

Plasma therapy is used to treat serious symptomatic patients within 6 days of infection. After 9 or 10 days of becoming infected, the patients begin to develop anti-bodies. 12 patients have succumbed to COVID in Udaipur till date. Plasma therapy has been found to be effective in treating serious COVID patients and earlier was instrumental in treating Swine flu patients to a large extent.

Dr Dinesh Kharadi, CMHO, Udaipur explained the benefits and process of Plasma therapy. He explained that blood is made up of 4 constituents – red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC) platelets and plasma. Plasma is the most liquid constituent of blood, through which anti bodies float in the body. These antibodies help in fighting the virus in a symptomatic patient’s body.

He added, "when a COVID patient recovers completely, his blood has the antibodies to a large extent. The plasma from the cured patient is injected into the blood of COVID patients. The antibodies in the transferred plasma help in fighting the novel corona virus."

A cured COVID patient can become a Plasma donor within 28 days of being cured. Plasma from one donor can be injected into the body of up to two patients. 200 ml plasma can be transferred in one go. Plasma can be stored for a period of 1 year at temperatures of -60 degree Celsius.