Plasma therapy will be started to treat covid-19 patients: West Bengal

The collection and preservation of plasma have been done at the Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion of the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday after Monami Biswas donated blood for the purpose. The 23-year-old woman from Habra in North 24 Parganas district recovered from the disease in March. Blood plasma has been collected from Ms Biswas using Plasmapheresis method by a team of seven doctors headed by Prof Dr Prasun Bhattacharya.

The therapy involves taking antibodies from the plasma of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 and transfusing those antibodies into an active coronavirus patient to help the immune system fight the infection.

West Bengal has taken a major step towards starting plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients after a state-run hospital collected and preserved the blood component from the woman.