COVID-19 | More virulent strains may develop due to irrational use of plasma therapy, warn experts

Raising concerns that plasma therapy may even turn counter-productive and catalyse the development of more virulent strains, the letter addressed to Principal Scientific Advisor Dr Vijay Raghavan stated: “This raises the possibility of more virulent strains developing due to irrational use of plasma therapy which can fuel the pandemic.”

Moneycontrol News

May 11, 2021 / 18:16 IST

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Several top doctors and health experts across the country have written to the Centre’s Principal Scientific Advisor, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) chief Dr Randeep Guleria, and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava, raising concerns over the “irrational and non-scientific” use of plasma therapy for treating COVID-19.

Many hospitals across the country are rampantly using convalescent plasma – virus neutralising antibodies collected from recovered coronavirus patients – to treat severe COVID-19 cases, and health experts have warned against this practice.

The doctors and public health experts wrote in the letter addressed to Principal Scientific Advisor Dr Vijay Raghavan: “We are writing to you as concerned clinicians, public health professionals, and scientists from India about the irrational and non-scientific use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 in the country.”

Concerned clinicians, public health professionals & scientists from have written to the @PrinSciAdvGoI expressing concerns about #plasmatherapy for #COVID19 and asked for issuing evidence-informed guidelines at par with global scientific standards
https://t.co/VhiiBbYOkf pic.twitter.com/szZaAdJCV0
— Soumyadeep Bhaumik | সৌম্যদীপ ভৌমিক (@DrSoumyadeepB) May 10, 2021

They further wrote in the letter that the Centre must intervene to stop the harassment that thousands of COVID-19 patients and their families are subjected to as they are sent out hunting for plasma donors to save their loved ones.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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