Govt issues guidelines for use of Convalescent Plasma in COVID-19 patients.

ISLAMABAD -- The government on Tuesday issued the general guidelines for use of 'Convalescent Plasma' as experimental therapy for COVID -19 patients in Pakistan.

The guidelines have been issued by the Ministry of National Health Services to provide information to public health facilities, health care settings, health care professionals and public.

COVID-19 is currently responsible for pandemic and is a threat to global health but no specific, effective therapy or drugs are available for its treatment, supported by strong evidence, so far.

Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy, a passive immunotherapy, that has been applied to the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases for more than a century including SARS, MERS, and 2009 H1N1 pandemic shows promise, with some encouraging efficacy and safety.

The experiences, mainly from China on the feasibility and efficacy of CP transfusion in COVID 19 patients have been published, however the randomized trials are still awaited.

These general guidelines were formulated so that systematic, structured and scientific approach can be adopted by the scientific community as well as ensure best standard of care, uniformity of documentation so that results can be pooled together, and a meaningful inference can be drawn.

This will help the government to ensure safety of patients and share the local experience and inform public. Facilities eligible for carrying out CP treatment since CP is still an experimental therapy which can only be safely used under controlled settings as part of research protocol.

The Principal investigator of the research should obtain approval for protocol and must get the health facility approved by Ministry of National Health Services in which the therapy can be initiated under supervision.

Only approved hospitals are allowed to enroll COVID-19 patients in clinical trials which have been cleared by the relevant research regulatory authorities. Recipient of CP any COVID-19 patient enrolled in a permitted 'Clinical trial' can be eligible for receiving the investigational therapy like CP under supervision of a qualified physician in an approved health facility.

There can be various eligibility and ineligibility criteria based on the 'Trial protocol'. Donor of CP eligibility criterion of donor eligibility criterion of potential donors like individuals who recovered from COVID-19 and are asymptomatic for at least two weeks.

These criteria should not differ from that being recommended...