KARACHI: The life-saving blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients being used for making money in Punjab, ARY News reported on Sunday.
It has been disclosed that a mafia doing business with the blood plasma of recovered patients of COVID-19, minting millions of rupees from the immoral business.
Head of the National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) Dr Tahir Shamsi has said that after Punjab, Islamabad is the next target of the elements doing this dirty business.
Dr. Shamsi has disclosed that the blood plasma being sold at the price of upto one lac rupees for each donation.
Islamabad and Punjab need a setup to collect blood plasma of the recovered patients of coronavirus, the NIBD chief said. Several recovered patients of coronavirus want to donate their blood plasma but they don’t know where to go for it, he said.
He said with the assistance of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the blood plasma collection centres will be established in Punjab and the federal capital on Monday (tomorrow).
The governments in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have established a mechanism to collect blood plasma of the recuperated patients thus closing the door of illegal business of plasma in these provinces, he added.
The doctors have found plasma therapy or passive immunization therapy effective for the critical patients of coronavirus, which has saved several lives in Pakistan.
Dr Shamsi earlier said that two lives can be saved via plasma of one recovered patient of coronavirus, adding that number of COVID-19 cases are on the rise in the country.
He said a person can again donate plasma after one week of first donation adding that 80 per cent of the coronavirus patients usually recover after plasma therapy.
