Plasma therapy clinical trials to treat Covid-19 patients begin in India
- More than 500 Covid-19 patients at two government hospitals are involved in the trials of experimental plasma therapy
- A severely ill man who underwent the therapy separately was off a ventilator and in a normal ward in five days, though doctors say it is no ‘magic bullet’
India’s first clinical trials of plasma therapy to treat Covid-19 patients started this week, coinciding with the case of a severely ill patient on a ventilator who was responding positively to the experimental treatment at a New Delhi hospital.
Doctors at Max Hospital in Saket are not taking part in the trials, but the desperate family of a 49-year-old man, whose father had already died of the virus, begged them to try plasma therapy as a last resort when he developed pneumonia and respiratory failure.
“In cases in which it’s a life-threatening condition, patients’ families can ask, on compassionate grounds, for treatment which has not yet been approved, but has shown promising results in other countries,” said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, clinical director for Max Healthcare.
Since the trials had not yet begun last week and systems were not in place, the family sought out a plasma donor themselves. They found a woman who had recovered from the disease three weeks earlier, had no other conditions and was willing to donate her blood.
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On April 14, for the first time in India, doctors at Max used plasma therapy to treat the severely ill man. On April 18, he was weaned off the ventilator. The next day, he was moved to a normal ward.
Budhiraja struck a word of caution, however. “Plasma therapy is no magic bullet … other standard treatment protocols were followed and all we can say is that plasma therapy could have worked as a catalyst in speeding up his recovery.”
It is precisely this issue – separating the effect of plasma from the effect of other drugs used on Covid-19 patients – that India’s clinical trials, run by the Indian Council of Medical Research, will seek to understand.
The randomised controlled trials have begun on more than 500 people at two government hospitals. The plasma treatment will be given to moderately and critically ill patients.
Donors are allowed to donate blood only if they have been symptom-free for 28 days and have tested negative twice. N.K. Singh, deputy secretary of the Indian Red Cross which will help hospitals collect the blood needed, said most Covid-19 survivors need counselling before they agree to donate.
