Plasma therapy no cure for virus: ministry.

Byline: Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD -- While illegal sale and purchase of convalescent plasma (CP) is going on across the country, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) on Tuesday announced that plasma therapy should not be considered as a cure for coronavirus.

The ministry warned that there could be serious side effects of plasma therapy, including febrile reactions [temperature increase and sometimes headache and back pain], allergic reactions, transfusion-associated circulatory overload, bronchospasm, transfusion-related acute lung injury and transmission of diseases like HIV, hepatitis B and C and others.

The country reported 5,090 Covid-19 cases and 117 deaths over the past 24 hours, taking the national tally of cases to 151,953 and deaths to 2,900.

It is worth mentioning that some of the people who have recovered from coronavirus are demanding tens of thousands of rupees for the plasma. Some labs have also started illegal business of plasma as it is believed that antibodies formed in the blood of the Covid-19 victims and, once they recover from the disease, those antibodies can help other patients to recover.

According to guidelines available with Dawn, since CP is still an experimental therapy, it can only be safely used under controlled settings as part of research protocol. The principal investigator of the research should obtain approval for his/her protocol and must get the health facility approved by the NHS ministry in which the therapy can be initiated under supervision. Only appAroved hospitals are allAowed to enroll their Covid-19 patients in clinical trials which have been cleared by the relevant research regulatory authorities.

A Covid-19 patient enroAlled in a permitted 'clinical trial' can be eligible for receiving the investigational therapy i.e. CP under supervision of a qualified physician in an approved health facility. There could be various eligibility and ineligibility criteria based on the 'trial protocol'.

Through the guidelines, the public has been informed that CP use is one of the intAerventions currently under investigation in Pakistan. However, at the moment, there are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of Covid-19 convalescent plasma as a standard therapy.

'Realising the dire need of effective treatment regimens for Covid-19, the government has mandated the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) to oversee testing new technologies and interventions. Clinical trials are...