‘India yet to study effect of plasma therapy in high risk patients’: Virologist Dr T Jacob John

Referring to a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which revealed that plasma therapy was not effective in moderate COVID 19 patients, he said, “The aim is to prevent occurrence of coronavirus and hence plasma therapy should have been administered immediately after coming to know of a person showing COVID 19 symptoms.”

Hence, administering the therapy to patients with moderate COVID was counterproductive, he opined. “Determining a patient as having mild, moderate or severe COVID-19 will take a few days. So the obvious way to ensure the effectiveness of plasma therapy is to choose patients above 65 years with comorbidities like including hypertension, diabetes and obesity, administer convalescent plasma to them and then wait for the results.”

Administering it after a person has been diagnosed as being infected with COVID 19 was counterproductive and would not help, he said. “Similar to a person being bitten by a dog being administered anti-rabies vaccine immediately without waiting for symptoms to manifest or just as a pregnant woman with chicken pox being treated immediately, CP should be administered as a preventive measure and not as a therapeutic intervention,” Dr John added. Globally, it has been proved that CP does not help after the virus has multiplied, Dr John said. “That is why we suggest that high risk patients be administered CP as it will develop immunity immediately.”