First COVID-19 patient recovers in Karachi after receiving plasma therapy
- By Anwar Khan -
- May 10, 2020
KARACHI: National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) Head Dr Tahir Shamsi on Sunday said that the first coronavirus patient has completely recovered and sent home after receiving plasma therapy, ARY NEWS reported.
The patient who hails from Karachi underwent passive immunization therapy on April 30 and recovered from the virus on May 08, he said adding that he was sent home after completely recovering from the infection.
Dr Tahir Shamsi said that over a dozen coronavirus patients are receiving treatment using plasma therapy. “An improvement in condition of all of them who received treatment through passive immunization therapy is being witnessed,” said the doctor.
He said that after recovering from the virus, the patient could donate his plasma more than once and urged the recovered patients to donate their plasma to pave way for treating seriously-ill coronavirus patients.
He however, asked them to refrain from donating plasma during fasting and said that it should be donated after the fasting duration.
On April 30, the Sindh health department permitted three hospitals in the province to use plasma of recovered patients of COVID-19 for passive immunisation therapy on an experimental basis.
Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad and National Institute of Blood Disease, Karachi have been allowed to experimentally use “Coronavirus Convalescent Plasma” for passive immunization to treat positive cases.
According to a notification issued by the health department, a team of experts will supervise the process at these hospitals.
The team will include physician/infectious disease specialist, ICU specialist, consultant haematologist, and representative of Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA).