ICMR approves Plasma Therapy Treatment

The Indian Council of Medical Research has recently approved plasma therapy as potential treatment for COVID-19. However, the protocol to conduct the therapy is yet to be finalized.

Plasma Therapy

The Plasma Therapy is used to treat viral infections. The antibodies of person recovered from the virus are transfused into persons that are critically-ill in order to boost their immune system. The therapy was earlier used to treat Ebola outbreak.

Significance

When a person gets infected, it takes 5 to 7 days for the antibodies to get segregated. However, in case of patients that are critically ill, by the time the anti-bodies start segregating, they will become sicker.

Background

The plasma therapy has been used to treat 10 patients in Wuhan, China. It has also been adopted by the US.

Current Scenario

The ICMR has so far tested 1,30,000 samples in India. Of these, 5,734 have tested positive. The data is as of April 10, 2020. The rate of positive cases in India is in the range between 3% and 5%.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2020