In the wake of the novel coronavirus cases rising in Maharashtra, the Centre has approved of 'convalescent plasma therapy' and 'pool testing' in the state on Friday. FPJ broke the story on Thursday.
Maharashtra Health Minister on Thursday had told FPJ that the Centre has allowed Maharashtra Government to implement plasma therapy. Besides, he had also said the government will conduct 75,000 pool tests.
Mumbai and Kolhapur will be the first cities in the state to use the plasma therapy and pool testing.
Minister of Medical Education in Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's Cabinet, Amit Deshmukh, on Friday said that the therapy will soon be begin in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Solapur.
On Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the plasma therapy trials on four COVID-19 patients of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) hospital have given encouraging results.
"The Central Government had given us permission only for limited trials of plasma therapy on serious patients at LNJP hospital. In the last few days, we have tried plasma therapy on four patients at LNJP hospital and till now the results are encouraging," said Kejriwal in a video-conference.
Kejriwal also requested the recovered coronavirus patients to donate blood plasma so that the critical patients can be saved from organ failure.
The convalescent plasma therapy uses antibodies from the plasma of a recovered COVID-19 patient to treat those who patients who are affected.
The concept behind the therapy is that the plasma of a patient recovered from COVID-19 contains antibodies with the specific ability to fight the novel coronavirus. These antibodies will then target and fight the virus in the body of another patient.
