Delhi govt to set up Plasma bank for treatment of COVID-19 patients

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced to setting up of a ‘plasma bank’ for treatment of COVID-19 patients in the national capital. The government is trying to encourage those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma.

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Key-Points

The Plasma bank will be set up at the Delhi government-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and doctors or hospitals will have to approach it for plasma if a COVID-19 patient needs the same.

The plasma bank will be first of its kind for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Perhaps, it will be the first plasma bank in the country.

Like in blood banks, where blood is extracted and stored for those who might be in need, the idea is to extract and store plasma from people who have recovered from Covid-19 and give it to someone suffering from the disease.

In the plasma therapy, antibodies from blood of patients, who have recovered from coronavirus, are used to treat infected patients. It is aimed at assessing the efficacy of convalescent plasma to limit complications in COVID patients.

In the LNJP Hospital of Delhi, plasma therapy was conducted on 35 COVID-19 patients and of them, 34 lives were saved and one patient died. Similarly, 49 patients were administrated therapy in private hospitals and 46 people recovered from the virus.