Recovered Muslim COVID-19 patients ready to donate plasma
Over forty Muslim coronavirus patients who were discharged from a hospital in Vadodara in Gujarat on Thursday have agreed to donate their blood plasma for the treatment of others, a community leader said. Recently the Union government allowed Gujarat health
authorities to use on an experimental basis the plasma transfusion therapy which aims to boost the immunity of critical patients.
Plasma (a component of blood) of recovered patients contains antibodies, which are supposed to help fight the infection when injected in other patients.
On Thursday, 44 Muslim patients were given discharge from a Covid Care Centre in Vadodara after they tested negative for infection twice in two days, said community leader Zuber Goplani.
Since all of them were asymptomatic and in non-critical stage, they were kept at this Covid centre, set up in the hostel premises of Ebrahim Bawany Industrial Training Institute on Ajwa road.
"With intensive care and quality food provided by authorities, they finally recovered," Goplani added.
"Since the plasma of their blood now carries antibodies for coronavirus, we asked them to donate their plasma so that lives of other patients can be saved," he said.
While leaving, more than 40 of them said they were ready to donate plasma.
IAS officer Vinod Rao, who is in-charge of Vadodara COVID-19 operation, said doctors, officials and community leaders persuaded these patients to donate their blood so that plasma can be extracted.
"I am glad to know that they have agreed to become plasma donors. Plasma of these 40-odd patients will be useful in saving lives of 100 others," said Rao.
