Convalescent Plasma Therapy GS: 2 "EMPOWER IAS"

In news:

• With no specific treatment available for novel coronavirus disease and a vaccine at least a year away, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved use of blood plasma from recovered patients to treat severely critical COVID-19 patients.

 

Convalescent Plasma Therapy

• The therapy seeks to make use of the antibodies developed in the recovered patient against the coronavirus.
• The whole blood or plasma from such people is taken, and the plasma is then injected in critically ill patients so that the antibodies are transferred and boost their fight against the virus.
• A COVID-19 patient usually develops primary immunity against the virus in 10-14 days.
• Therefore, if the plasma is injected at an early stage, it can possibly help fight the virus and prevent severe illness.

 

How often has it been used in the past?

• This therapy is no new wonder. It has been used several times.
• The US used plasma of recovered patients to treat patients of Spanish flu (1918-1920).
• In 2014, the WHO released guidelines to treat Ebola patients with convalescent whole blood and plasma.
• In 2015, plasma was used for treating MERS patients.

 

How is it done?

• The process to infuse plasma in a patient can be completed quickly.
• It only requires standard blood collection practices, and extraction of plasma.
• If whole blood is donated (350-450 ml), a blood fractionation process is used to separate the plasma.
• Otherwise, a special machine called aphaeresis machine can be used to extract the plasma directly from the donor.
• While blood is indeed extracted from the donor, the aphaeresis machine separates and extracts the plasma using a plasma kit, and the remaining blood components are returned into the donor’s body.

 

WHO’s guidelines

• WHO guidelines in 2014 mandate a donor’s permission before extracting plasma.
• Plasma from only recovered patients must be taken, and donation must be done from people not infected with HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, or any infectious disease.
• If whole blood is collected, the plasma is separated by sedimentation or centrifugation, then injected in the patient.
• If plasma needs to be collected again from the same person, it must be done after 12 weeks of the first donation for males and 16 weeks for females, the WHO guidelines state.

 

How optimistic is the latest move?

• COVID-19 does not have a specific treatment, only supportive care— including antiviral drugs, oxygen supply in mild cases and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
• Plasma can be infused into two kinds of COVID-19 patients— those with a severe illness, or individuals at a higher risk of getting the virus.
• However, that while plasma transfers immunity from one person to another, it is not known if it can save lives in COVID-19 infection.
• The treatment could be effective for patients in the age group 40-60, but may be less effective for people aged beyond 60 years.

 

Can it be done in India?

• India has facilities for removing 500 ml of plasma from a donor using aphaeresis.
• For this experimental therapy to be tried out, the Drug Controller General of India will first have to grant blood banks approval for removal of plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients.
• The procedure is simple and can be done in India, but it is important to control the risk of infection during transfusion, and the patient’s acceptance is required.
• It’s like a vaccine. It will engulf the virus and kill it. But it is easier said than done. We may need a series of approvals which India has never done before.

 

What is Coronavirus?

• According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Coronavirus is similar to the viruses that cause serious illnesses ranging from the common cold to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
• WHO said that common symptoms of CoV include cough, fever, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties among others. Cases of Coronavirus have been identified in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea. Recently, an English family also came under the grip of this virus.

 

What is the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV?

• Normally, coronavirus is a large family of viruses that are often the source of respiratory infections, including the common cold.
• Most of the viruses are common among animals, but sometimes, an animal-based coronavirus mutates and successfully finds a human host.
• According to the World Health Organization, during previous outbreaks due to other coronaviruses, human-to-human transmission occurred through droplets or objects making contact, suggesting that the transmission mode of the 2019-nCoV can be identical.
• Manifested symptoms may include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Antibiotics do not work against such viral pneumonia and there are no vaccines against them.
• More significant is the new understanding that the virus is contagious even during incubation, that is even before a patient exhibits any symptoms. This characteristic amplifies transmissibility.
• Due to this, travel bans across China are initiated and the literal isolation of Wuhan (the place where the novel coronavirus outbreak took place) has been done.

 

 

WHO on Coronavirus

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently declared that the global risk of Coronavirus has been increased from moderate to high. WHO report said that China has 1985 confirmed cases in China and suspected patients in various countries double the risk of Coronavirus outbreak.

 

Symptoms of Coronavirus

• An infected person with the Coronavirus feels uneasy breathing, sore throat, cold, cough, and fever.
• This fever can transform to pneumonia and pneumonia can exacerbate many problems associated with the kidney. The virus can affect more commonly the people with the weakened immune system, infants and old age people.

 

Prevention

• According to the various reports, the best policy to prevent Coronavirus is to avoid sea-food. Clean your hands thoroughly before coming from anywhere or eating anything.
• Since there is no vaccine is available to stop Coronavirus, doctors are using other important medicines to mitigate the risk. The Coronavirus can pose a life threat if it effects for a long time or reaches a fatal level.