ICMR drops plasma therapy from COVID-19 treatment
ICMR drops plasma therapy from COVID-19 treatment: WhatsApp users these days have been receiving messages urging relatives recovered COVID-19 patients to donate plasma. Amid the ongoing health crisis in India, convalescent plasma therapy was being sought for treatments.
However, the Union Health Ministry and the AIIMS-ICMR COVID-19 National Task Force opted to drop the plasma therapy as treatment from its national clinical management protocol.
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The decision came in line with the results of the RECOVERY trial – the largest randomised trial reporting the effects of convalescent plasma therapy in hospitalised COVID-19 patients – being published in The Lancet medical journal.
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The study revealed that high titre convalescent plasma failed to reduce 28-day mortality. The researchers stated that high-titre convalescent plasma, in patients hospitalised with COVID-19, did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes.
While the world was without a vaccine in mid-2020, the US Food and Drug Administration had granted an emergency use authorisation (EUA) for convalescent plasma therapy.
The ICMR scientist, Dr Samiran Panda, was also a part of the panel that dropped plasma therapy on coronavirus management guidelines.
Panda said that the decision was taken as anecdotal evidence was very weak. The ICMR scientist added that it was not helping patients and only resulting in panic.
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