Covid-19: ICMR warns against ‘indiscriminate use’ of plasma therapy, lists recipient-donor criteria
ICMR said that the therapy should be employed only if the donor’s plasma has ‘sufficient concentration of antibody’.
The Indian Council of Medical Research on Tuesday issued an advisory warning against “indiscriminate use” of the convalescent plasma therapy, as a treatment for the coronavirus infection.
“CPT [convalescent plasma therapy] did not lead to reduction in progression to severe Covid-19 or all-cause mortality,” the ICMR said in its observations after it conducted a randomised controlled trial among 464 Covid-19 patients with “moderate” symptoms across 39 hospitals in India.
ICMR said that similar studies conducted in China and Netherlands have also documented no significant benefit of plasma therapy in improving the clinical outcomes of hospitalised Covid-19 patients. “Indiscriminate use of CPT is not advisable,” the research body said.
The ICMR also noted that convalescent plasma, having low concentration of specific antibody against the virus, may be less beneficial for treating patients. It said that the therapy should be employed only if the donor’s plasma has “sufficient concentration of antibody”.
It has also prescribed a donor-recipient matrix and advised against the use of plasma therapy if those conditions are not met.
Earlier in September too, a study funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research showed that the procedure does not help reduce the risk of death or slow down the progress of the infection.
Meanwhile, India recorded 38,617 new coronavirus cases taking the country’s total to 89,12,907 on Wednesday, data from the health ministry showed. The toll rose to 1,30,993 with 474 more deaths. The number of active cases stood at 4,46,805. As many as 83,35,109 people have recovered from the disease so far.