The ICMR has approved 21 institutions across the country for the Plasma Therapy trials. The Institute said that the trial will be started with 452 people. The antibodies will be taken from the blood of persons recovered from Coronavirus. These antibodies will be transfused into a Coronavirus patient. The ICMR hopes that this would kickstart the immune system to fight the infection. The blood samples will be collected 28 days after the person has recovered.
With respect to the trial, the ICMR said that they received expression of interest from 111 institutions.
Plasma therapy is at only at an experimental procedure for treating Coronavirus patients. The Union Healthy Ministry has earlier warned against the use of plasma therapy in such patients. The Ministry said that this was only at an experimental stage and has the potential to cause life-threatening complications. As such Plasma therapy should only be used for research and trial purposes, the Ministry added.
Plasma therapy is one of the several emerging therapies for treating the deadly disease.
