A resident doctor of Lucknow’s King George Medical University (KGMU), who has now recovered from COVID-19, has donated his plasma for the treatment of others suffering from the disease.
According to an NDTV report, Dr Tauseef Khan was the first doctor in Uttar Pradesh who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus after he came into contact with a patient at the dedicated COVID-19 hospital in KGMU.
“I was in isolation for 21 days and then, my test came negative. I then went for a further 14 days' home quarantine and I am fully cured now,” the doctor was quoted as saying.
He has now donated his plasma and has also appealed to other patients who have recovered to come forward and help, said the report.
He further assured that the procedure of plasma donation is easy and has no risk, the report said.
Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma, a blood component, from a cured patient is transfused to a critically-ill coronavirus patient.
The blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 develops antibodies to fight the virus. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a cured coronavirus patient to treat another critical patient.
The idea behind this therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma. Once the blood plasma of the recovered patient is infused with that of the second patient, the antibodies start fighting against coronavirus in the second person's body.
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The process of donating plasma is similar to that of donating blood and takes about an hour.
On April 21, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had asked the state's medical authorities to promote plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients after examining its efficacy.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recently allowed states to start clinical trials of plasma therapy.
(With inputs from PTI)
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