Odisha to start plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients

Bhubaneswar, July 02: The Odisha government on Thursday decided to start plasma therapy for treatment of critically-ill COVID-19 patients in the state, official sources said.

According to the sources, the decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the state's Health and Family Welfare Minister N K Das, who asked the department officials to constitute a technical team to prepare a line of treatment for critically-ill COVID-19 patients through plasma therapy.

The minister also asked the officials to set up a plasma bank to facilitate the treatment, they said. The state took the decision keeping in view the high rate of recovery of patients.

Earlier, the Odisha government had also procured essential medicines like remdesivir and favipiravir for the treatment of moderate to severe COVID-19 patients in the state. The sources in the Health and Family Welfare department said the plasma therapy will initially be implemented in four places -- SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack and three other dedicated COVID hospitals like SUM, KIMs and Ashwini. The technical team for the plasma therapy will set up a line of treatment as well as suggest which patients should be given such advanced treatment, Das said, adding that the therapy has been successful in some places in India.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) P K Mohapatra, RMRC director Sanghamitra Pati, KIMs director Subrat Acharya among others participated in the discussion over starting plasma therapy in the state.

In plasma therapy, the plasma is collected from the recently recovered patients to treat critically-ill COVID-19 patients, an expert said, adding that Odisha has as many as 5,502 patients who have recovered from the highly infectious disease.

The state has 7,545 COVID-19 positive cases, of which 5,502 patients have been cured while 27 have died of the disease. Eight other coronavirus patients had died earlier but their deaths were attributed to "non-COVID reasons", the official said.