Plasma therapy only in early stage, not approved for COVID-19 so far: Govt

New Delhi, Apr 28: The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that there is no proven cure for COVID-19, and plasma therapy is still in experimental stage and is being used in trial stage and research purposes.

"Plasma therapy is being tested. However, no evidence has been found that this can be used as a treatment for Covid-19. A national level study has been launched by the ICMR to study the efficacy of this therapy," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health.

Untill ICMR concludes its study and a robust scientific proof is available, plasma therapy should be used only for research or trial purpose. If plasma therapy is not used in a proper manner under proper guideline then it can also cause life threatening complications, he added.

The United States Food and Drug Administration approved Convalescent Plasma Therapy for COVID-19 patients as an experimental treatment in clinical trials.

According to reports, this therapy takes antibodies from the blood of a person who has recovered from the novel coronavirus and transfuses the antibodies with a person who is critically ill, to help kickstart the immune system.

According to the reports, once a patient who had the virus and recovered from the jaws of death, that patient develops antibodies that would stay in their blood waiting to fight the same virus again. By injecting those antibodies to another person with the disease, the antibodies would recognise the virus and begins to attack the virus.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, the first patient to be administered convalescent plasma therapy has fully recovered and has been discharged with a promising prognosis.