Plasma therapy to treat severely-ill COVID-19 patients begins in Maharashtra: Aaditya Thackeray

Maharashtra has started using plasma enrichment technique to treat severely-ill COVID-19 patients on a trial basis, informed State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday.

Responding to a report that the Delhi government will use plasma enrichment technique to treat severely-ill coronavirus patients on a trial basis, Aaditya responded saying, "Maharashtra has begun too".

According to the ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state with 2,687 cases of which 259 patients have recovered/discharged while 178 patients have lost their lives due to the virus.

The blood of cured coronavirus patients can be used to treat COVID-19 patients, Delhi AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria had told . "Conversion plasma is a therapy that is being looked at as an option to treat the patients of COVID-19. If a coronavirus positive patient recovers, then he recovers by his body fighting the infection. To fight the infection, the body produces antibodies that stay in the blood," he said. Dr Guleria said this is the reason the doctors can ask the cured COVID-19 patients to donate their blood to another virus-infected patient to boost his immune system."If these antibodies are found to be in high amount in a person who has recovered from the coronavirus, we can ask him to donate his blood. From that blood, we take plasma which has a high concentration of anti-bodies. These antibodies can be transfused to another COVID-19 person, which boost the immune system of sick persons and fight the virus in a better manner," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )