Cured COVID-19 patients don't have sufficient amount of antibodies required for plasma therapy: AIIMS Director

There are certain studies which shows that a number of people recovering from COVID-19 do not have sufficient amount of antibodies in their blood, which is required for the plasma therapy to treat virus-infected person, said Randeep Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, on Friday.

"Plasma therapy is not the only treatment strategy for COVID-19 and it is not that it will be effective for all patients. For that holistic treatment is required. People who have recovered, if they are willing to give blood, the blood should have antibodies. There are certain studies which show that number of people recovering from coronavirus are not having that good amount of anti-bodies based on the antibody testing kit," Guleria told .

He said plasma therapy is not a 'magic bullet' and there is a need to look at it with a more researched type of a treatment modality rather than the one which can be done for all the patients suffering from COVID-19.

Guleria informed that donor blood needs to be to properly screened as other transfusion-related reactions can occur. He, however, called plasma therapy a relatively safe form of treatment.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the plasma therapy trials on four COVID-19 patients of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) hospital have given encouraging results."The Central Government had given us permission only for limited trials of plasma therapy on serious patients at LNJP hospital. In the last few days, we have tried plasma therapy on four patients at LNJP hospital and till now the results are encouraging," said Kejriwal in a video-conference.During the conference, Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Science, Delhi said that till now the results have been encouraging, and two-three more people may be given plasma therapy on Friday.

( With inputs from ANI )