A Panic-Inducing Hunt For Plasma And Frantic Calls

Doctors say not many people are stepping up to donate plasma

- Nikita Jain

NEW DELHI: Karan is frantically calling his relatives to get a plasma donor for his mother, who is admitted at a private hospital in Dwarka after doctors at the hospital asked him to arrange one for his ailing mother. Two days of panic and frantically searching for plasma donors have not yielded any results and many others like him have been running from post to pillar looking for donors.

Plasma therapy is the process when plasma of a recently recovered COVID-19 patient is extracted and then transfused to severely ill patients so that the antibodies from the recovered patient's plasma can strengthen the infected patient's immune system.

If a person with COVID has recovered, then their plasma can be taken and given to a sick patient whose immunity is close to giving up. Under this therapy, it is believed that people who have recovered from coronavirus, develop natural defences to the disease in their blood (antibodies), said Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director, Haematology, Haemato – Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant, Fortis Memorial Research Institute.