Coronavirus: First patient to get plasma therapy in Maharashtra dies
Doctors at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital said the plasma therapy did little to improve his condition.
A 53-year-old man who was the first coronavirus patient in Maharashtra to receive convalescent plasma therapy died on Thursday at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra, Mumbai Mirror reported. Plasma for the procedure was taken from a patient who had recovered from the infection.
The patient was admitted to the hospital on April 20 and then shifted to the intensive care unit. He suffered from septicaemia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, according to The Indian Express.
Dr Jalil Parkar said the man had fever, throat pain and cough for 10 days before he got tested for the coronavirus. “He developed septicaemia early on,” he added. “Usually, we observe a patient for 48 hours for plasma effects, but there was little improvement in his case due to plasma therapy. That is why a decision to not give further dose was taken.”
On Tuesday, the Union Health Ministry had said that plasma therapy is not an approved treatment for the coronavirus and is only one of the several therapies being explored currently. It also said the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country’s nodal body for coronavirus testing, is studying the efficacy of the treatment.
Hours later, the medical body also warned that the misuse of the therapy can have a fatal outcome for the patients. “There are also several risks of using this therapy including life-threatening allergic reactions and lung injury,” ICMR said.
Earlier, Mumbai had received an approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research to start a trial on convalescent plasma therapy.
Maharashtra, India’s worst-hit state, has 10,498 coronavirus cases and 459 deaths.