Plasma therapy may no longer be an option for Covid-19 treatment, ICMR feels

ICMR said the government would also take a call soon on the use of medicines like Remdesivir and Hydroxychloroquine

Armed with scientific evidence proving its futility, the Centre is set to drop the convalescent plasma therapy as a Covid-19 treatment option from the national treatment guidelines.

This comes in the wake of the world's largest study on such therapy by Indian researchers who demonstrated that treating a Covid-19 patient with the plasma of another infected-and-cured patient's plasma neither reduces the mortality nor prevents the disease's progression from a mild to a severe one.

Read | Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms may be best donors for plasma therapy: Study

"We have had discussions in the national task force and we are discussing further with the joint monitoring group that this (convalescent plasma therapy) may be deleted from the national guidelines,” Indian Council of Medical Research's director general Balram Bhargava said here on Tuesday.

Bhargava said the ICMR study carried out by 350 researchers on 464 patients in 29 hospitals, would appear in the British Medical Journal shortly. Its conclusions were released through a non-peer-reviewed pre-print of paper last month.

With few specific therapeutic options available to manage Covid-19 infections, the plasma therapy was initially considered a passive immunisation strategy that was used on several occasions in the past century, inspiring clinical expectations that it could emerge as a potential therapy for a disease with no proven, effective interventions.

Also Read | Plasma therapy, a silver lining: Here's all you need to know

However, though the ICMR research clearly demonstrated its inefficacy, a section of hospitals in the private sector continues to use it on hapless Covid-19 patients who have to scramble in search of a donor and shell out a hefty sum on an unproven therapy.

Bhargava said the government would also take a call soon on the use of medicines like Remdesivir and Hydroxychloroquine following the publication of the World Health Organisation's Solidarity trial findings, which showed both drugs are ineffective in preventing Covid-19 mortality.

Also Read | No data on number of Covid-19 plasma banks in country: Government

Asked about the government's preparations to deliver a Covid-19 vaccine to the masses, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said there were more than 28,000 vaccine cold storages available in the country and the augmentation needs were being discussed.

In addition, the government is detailing the numbers of priority recipients and the dose requirements.

Meanwhile, India's new positive case count fell below 50,000 for the first time after 84 days as 46,790 cases were registered in the last 24 hours according to Health Ministry records.

It was July 29 when the number of new Covid-19 cases fell below the 50,000-mark last time. The death toll stands at 1,15,197 out of which 587 were added in the last 24 hours.