Plasma Therapy Didn't Help Reduce COVID-19 Deaths: Top Medical Body Study

The Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy didn't help in reducing death due to the coronavirus, the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed in a study.

The top medical research has made these revelations to investigate the effectiveness of plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 after conducting a study in 39 hospitals across India.

For this, the ICMR researchers did an open-label, parallel-arm, phase II, multicentre, and randomized controlled trial from April 22 to July 14 this year. The trial was registered with the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI) for the purpose, it said.

1,210 patients (moderately ill, confirmed COVID-19 cases) admitted across 39 trial sites were screened. Of these, 29 were teaching public hospitals and 10 were private hospitals spread across 14 states and Union Territories representing 25 cities.

The study was conducted on 464 randomly enrolled participants who were hospitalized and were moderately ill, confirmed COVID-19 patients. 235 participants were put in the intervention arm while 229 subjects were in the control arm.

According to the study, participants were randomised to either the control or the intervention arm. Two doses of 200 ml CP was transfused 24 hours apart in the intervention arm.

"Composite primary outcome was achieved in 44 (18.7 per cent) participants in the intervention arm and 41 (17.9 per cent) in the control arm. Mortality was documented in 34 (13.6 per cent) and 31 (14.6 per cent) participants in intervention and control arm, respectively," the study mentioned.

"Convalescent Plasma was not associated with a reduction in mortality or progression to severe COVID-19. This trial has high generalisability and approximates real-life setting of convalescent plasma therapy in settings with limited laboratory capacity. A prior measurement of neutralizing antibody titres in donors and participants may further clarify the role of CP in the management of COVID-19," concluded the findings of the study.