Finding a replacement donor must for Covid patients to get plasma from ILBS bank, says Delhi government.
Coronavirus patients who needs plasma at any hospital in Delhi have to arrange a replacement donor for the plasma bank, the city government has said in new rules aimed at encouraging more plasma donation amid rising infections. An officer of the hospital will be responsible for finding a replacement donor. The decision was taken to maintain stocks at the plasma bank set up a week ago at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
"So far, plasma has been given out to over 100 patients and almost the same number of donors have come forward, but a lot more recipients are in line. To maintain stock it is necessary to have a system of replacement donors," Head of the Blood Transfusion Department at the Hospital, Dr Meenu Bajpai, told NDTV.
To arrange for plasma, the recipient hospital will have to contact one of its coronavirus patients who have recovered and have been discharged, and request them to donate. The donor can be of any blood group but must meet the eligibility criteria, which excludes senior citizens and those with comorbidities.
All Covid plasma donors will get a Blood Donation Card from the ILBS Hospital. This card can be used at any Blood Bank by the donor to receive blood for themselves or their relatives.
With more than 1,00,000 coronavirus cases, Delhi has the highest number of cases in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. More than 78,000 Covid patients have recovered in Delhi.
"Thousands of people have recovered, but it is worrying that donors are not turning up in large numbers. The chief minister has been appealing to people that they should come forward. People need to understand that the act of donating plasma is an act of serving the nation," Director of the ILBS Hospital, Dr SK Sarin, told NDTV.
Asked if any famous public figure had donated plasma and motivated others to do the same, Dr Sarin said, "If a celebrity had come to donate plasma, he would have come on TV or Facebook to talk about it. Many MPs, MLAs and other VIPs have been infected by the coronavirus, but we have not seen any such (celebrity) donors here."
Though many Covid Warriors who fell ill in line of duty have come forward to donate plasma, few others have shown willingness. This after the Delhi government has assured it would even organise transport for donors. Worried doctors suspect the unwillingness could be because not enough people were aware that the process is safe.
Plasma therapy involves transfusion of plasma from a recovered coronavirus patient to a critical patient. The blood of such a patient is rich in antibodies that are expected to help the critical patient recover. An average of 400-500ml plasma is collected per donation. Each critical patient is administered 200ml in under two hours.