After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency authorisation to use plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients in the US, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal congratulated Delhiites, saying what "Delhi did yesterday, America does today".
The Delhi government was the first to seek permission for trials of plasma therapy in April, and first to open a plasma bank in India in July, the Delhi government said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump on August 23 announced that the FDA had approved the use of blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients as a treatment against the disease that has killed over 176,000 in the US.
"Today I am pleased to make a truly historic announcement, in our battle against China virus, that will save countless lives. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has issued an emergency use authorisation for a treatment known as convalescent plasma," Trump said.
Trump described the procedure as a powerful therapy, as he appealed to Americans to come forward to donate plasma if they had recovered from Covid-19.
The Delhi government was the first in the country to apply for permission from the Centre to carry out trials of plasma therapy at the Lok Nayak Jan Prakash (LNJP) hospital in April.
After encouraging results of the initial trials of plasma therapy in critical COVID-19 patients, the Delhi government then requested the Centre to allow plasma therapy in Delhi, which was later granted.
The first plasma bank in the country was subsequently started in The Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) by the Delhi government on July 2, with an objective to provide free of cost convalescent plasma to patients after which another plasma bank was launched at the LNJP Hospital in Delhi.
However, the World Health Organisation has called plasma therapy experimental, and that the preliminary results showing it may work are still "inconclusive".
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