Plasma therapy dropped from Covid-19 treatment: ICMR revises guidelines
18 May, 2021 | Priyanka Sharma
ICMR has dropped convalescent plasma therapy from its recommended treatment guidelines. No significant benefit has been found from the use of plasma in Covid-19 treatment.
Amid the fight against Covid-19, India has dropped plasma therapy from its recommended treatment guidelines. ISMR on Monday issued an advisory suggesting that no significant benefit has been found from the use of plasma in Covid-19 treatment. Several international trials have further supported the claim.
As per an open label phase II multi centre randomised controlled trial conducted by ISMR across 39 public and private hospitals, it would found that the convalescent plasma therapy does not lead to reduction in progression to severe Covid-19 or all-cause mortality. Furthermore, no benefit of use of CPT could be established. Hence, indiscriminate use of plasma is not advisable.
As per the new ICMR guidelines, CPT should only be administered in the early stage of Covid-19 disease, i.e 3-7 days from onset of symptoms, but not later than 10 days. It should be done after informed consent and the patient should not have IgG antibody against Covid-19.
Despite experts’s stress on inefficacy of plasma treatment, doctors across India often stressed on the need to source plasma from recovered patients, leading to several SOS calls from family members on social media. With the new guidelines, it is expected that the SOS calls for plasma will witness a sharp decline.