Recovered Muslim COVID-19 patients to donate plasma in Gujarat
More than forty Muslim COVID-19 patients, who were discharged from a hospital in Vadodara, Gujarat, on Thursday, will be donating their blood plasma for the treatment of other patients, a community leader said.
Earlier, the Union government had 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 discharged from a COVID Care Centre in Vadodara after they tested negative for infection twice in two days, the community leader Zuber Goplani told The New Indian Express.
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.
