Plasma donation can save Covid -19 patients life. Less people get chance to save other people life.
Donate plasma, save life of COVID patients
The coronavirus is raging throughout the world and the country. Already millions have been affected all over the world and lakhs have been affected in the country. Scientists are still working on finding out a proper cure for the COVID-19 virus.
There have been improvements in the vaccine industry, but things are still going on at a slow rate even after the fast track of the vaccine development. Indeed, we need a proper cure for this virus as fast as we can. But due to the lack of proper vaccine, a number of medications are used to treat the patients.
It is not that these medications are not effective. They are very much effective and the recovery rate has improved by a great extent. But still WHO and World are trying to find out other treatments which will take much less time to cure a coronavirus patient. And one such treatment is the plasma treatment.
What is a Plasma Therapy?
We all know about blood transfusion from one person to another. In this process, blood from one patient is given to another patient who requires blood. It helps to save millions of lives every year. Nevertheless, plasma transfusion or plasma therapy is the current procedure to treat COVID patients.
The plasma is the colorless fluid part of the blood. The blood corpuscles are suspended in the colorless liquid component of the blood. The plasma constitutes of mainly half of the blood’s volume.
The Convalescent plasma therapy is being used by a number of scientists and doctors all across the globe as a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus. The convalescent plasma therapy was first introduced in China and USA and after that, India gave a nod for the clinical trials of the plasma therapy. And till date, it is being used to treat coronavirus patients.
Firstly, the convalescent plasma therapy aims at using the antibodies from the blood of the patients who have already recovered from the coronavirus disease. The therapy can also be used to immunize people who are at high risk of getting infected like the healthcare workers, families of patients and other high-risk contacts.
Secondly, the concept of the therapy is quite simple. It is known that the people who have recovered from the novel coronavirus, their plasma will contain antibodies which can help in fighting against the virus.
The main theory is that, once the plasma is administered into the body of the patient who is under treatment, the antibodies will begin targeting and fighting the novel coronavirus in the affected patient whose treatment is going on.
The convalescent plasma therapy is mainly a type of passive immunization and should be used as a prevention rather than a treatment for the disease.
Less people get chance to save other’s life
Not every person in this world have got the privilege to save another person’s life. So, if someone is getting that, he/she should surely take it. The plasma therapy is mainly built towards protecting another person’s life with the help of the plasma of a different person.
The person who is donating the plasma should be willing to donate the plasma completely and also for the betterment of the people. He/she should know that the plasma he will be donating will help to treat a number of patients and help to save a number of lives.
He/she should be proud of that and should look forward to donate the plasma. As already mentioned, few people get the opportunity of saving some other person’s life. So, if a person is getting that, he/she should grasp the opportunity with both hands.
How convalescent plasma therapy works
The convalescent plasma therapy works with the help of antibodies. Antibodies are formed inside a patient’s body when he/she is infected with the novel coronavirus. The antibodies are mainly developed inside a patient’s body as part of the body’s natural immune response to a foreign pathogen. In this case, the foreign pathogen is the novel coronavirus.
These antibodies being very highly specific to the novel coronavirus, work towards eliminating the coronavirus from the body of the patient. Once the patient recovers from the disease, he/she then donates the blood.
The blood is then taken to test for any other disease and if found safe, it is then taken through a process to extract the plasma. The antibody rich plasma is then ingested into the body of another patient who is undergoing treatment.
The concept of the plasma therapy is very much simple. Patients who recover from an infectious disease often produce antibodies that can protect against later infections with the same microbe. This immunity can be transferred by giving serum to those at risk of infection.
Risks involved in plasma therapy
Though the success of the plasma therapy is quite commendable, there are a certain amount of risks that are involved with this therapy. These risks need to be taken proper care of.
While the plasma therapy is going on, there can be certain instances that certain blood substances get transferred to the other patient. This can result in an infection inside the body of the patient.
It can also happen that the therapy might fail in some patients. This can result in some form of severe infection.
It can so happen that due to administering of foreign antibodies, the body’s natural immune system gets suppressed. As a result, the patient becomes vulnerable to sub sequent and other infections.
Plasma therapy and Covid-19
Plasma therapy has still now been very much successful in treating Covid-19. The clinical trials proved very much successful and it showed positive results. It is already been used in China, USA and India for the treatment of coronavirus patients.
More countries are slowly taking it up to be used for the treatment. And if proved successful, it can be used for successfully treating all the coronavirus patients all across the world.
Conclusion
The covid-19 pandemic is raging through the whole world. All around the globe, people are getting infected and are getting hospitalized. Although more than half of the patients are getting recovered. Scientists and doctors are using a mix of all the potential medicines that could be used to treat the disease.
Plasma therapy is just in its initial part. Finally it can be said surely that once the plasma therapy gets going properly, more number of patients will be cured and less hospitalization will be required.