Maharashtra Home Department has launched a drive to bust the racket involved in promoting illegal plasma sale. In an interview with The Free Press Journal, the city-based leading Consultant Surgeon Dr Parthiv Sanghvi explains the present status.
Q: Plasma therapy is talk of the town. What is your take?
A: It is said, "necessity is the mother of invention." This holds true in the case of Covid-19 patients too. When no cure was in sight, scientists across the world are working overtime to give an antidote to this dreaded disease. Working tirelessly, they found that the antibodies generated from a Covid survivor if transfused into the blood of an ill Covid patient can cure patients. Though not all, a ray of hope was seen. Hence started the trials of plasma therapy, where the colloquially known white portion of the blood or plasma was taken from a Covid survivor and transfused into an ill Covid patient of the same blood group. Some patients did improve.
Q: However, there are reports of plasma sale. What is your comment?
A: But as is usually the case in a country like ours, that scarcity of important goods is an opportunity for some to earn. That was what happened exactly. In a burgeoning economy, where means to earn itself are scarce, some opportunists saw a windfall earning and started coercing donations from poor survivors.
Reminiscent of the days of illegal kidney rackets, plasma donation racket has grown in a big way across the country. In some states, a handsome sum up to Rs 3 lakh is offered. Ethics are kept aside and the trade grows. Albeit, in a hush-hush manner.
Q: How this can be prevented?
A: There is a lot to be done to prevent this. It is not as if the government is not doing its bit. But black marketers are even smarter. Though the permission for plasma donation is given to a select few hospitals on an experimental basis, a track of the donations and donors need to be kept. How many donations are done by a donor and where are they done needs to be tracked. Information on the side effects of unsupervised donations needs to be highlighted in social media. Rewarding a donor socially is important.
If a little publicity and recognition are given to donors who donate at the right place will definitely not harm anybody. Taking plasma by unsolicited means should be socially ostracized and donations done should be traced from the time they are made to the patient in whom they are infused. And last but not the least, penal provisions imposed on trafficking.
