Chhattisgarh witnesses 63.41% voter turnout till 5 pm
Till 5 pm, polling stations registered a commendable 63.41% participation rate for the Bastar parliamentary seat.
West Bengal is planning to adopt the plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients after a state-run hospital collected and preserved the blood component from a woman who recovered from the disease in March, a senior official of the health department said on Thursday.
The therapy involves taking antibodies from the plasma of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 and transfusing those antibodies into an active coronavirus patient to help the immune system fight the infection.
The collection and preservation of plasma have been done at the Department of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion of the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday after Monami Biswas donated blood for the purpose, the official said.
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The 23-year-old woman from Habra in North 24 Parganas district recovered from the disease in March. Blood plasma has been collected from Biswas using Plasmapheresis method by a team of seven doctors headed by Prof Dr Prasun Bhattacharya.
The collection and preservation of plasma have been done for the first time in the eastern part of the country, PTI reports. The woman, who was pursuing higher studies in Scotland, tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from abroad. She agreed to donate her blood plasma for treating such patients.
On Monday, a 28-year-old doctor of Tata Medical Centre who recently recovered from COVID-19 will also donate plasma, health department sources said. At least 10 to 12 pouches of plasma will be enough to start plasma therapy of COVID-19 patients/
Kerala was the first state to try the plasma therapy after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gave nod to start the clinical trials in April. Later, the method was also adopted by Delhi and the results were called “positive and encouraging” by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
After the clinical trials of run in April, ICMR gave its nod to conduct a multicentric phase-2 trial COVID-19 patients with moderate illness, earlier this month.
(With inputs from PTI)
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