Plasma therapy may be dropped from Covid-19 clinical management protocols, task force to take a call soon

New Delhi: Plasma therapy is likely to be dropped from the clinical Covid-19 management protocols, sources said on Saturday.

This comes a day after a meeting of the ICMR-National Task Force for Covid-19, during which its ‘ ineffectiveness’ in a number of cases was discussed.

Sources also said that a final decision on the matter will be taken soon. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is expected to issue an advisory on the matter.

The present guidelines allows “off label” use of plasma therapy at the stage of early moderate disease, that is, within seven days of the onset of symptoms and if there is availability of a high titre donor plasma.

The decision to remove it from the guidelines comes in the backdrop of some clinicians and scientists writing to Principal Scientific Advisor K VijayRaghavan cautioning against the “irrational and non-scientific use” of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 in the country.

In the letter, which was also marked to ICMR chief Balram Bhargava and AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, public health professionals alleged that the current guidelines on plasma therapy are not based on existing evidence and pointed out some very early evidence that indicates a possible association between emergence of variants with lower susceptibility to neutralising antibodies in immunosuppressed people given plasma therapy.

This raises the possibility of more virulent strains developing due to irrational use of plasma therapy which can fuel the pandemic, according to the letter signed by vaccinologist Gagandeep Kang, surgeon Pramesh CS and others.

“We are writing to you as concerned clinicians, public health professionals and scientists from India about the irrational and non- scientific use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 in the country.

“This has stemmed from guidelines issued by government agencies, and we request your urgent intervention to address the issue which can prevent harassment of COVID-19 patients, their families, their clinicians and COVID-19 survivors, said the letter.

“The current research evidence unanimously indicates that there is no benefit offered by convalescent plasma for treatment of COVID-19 . However, it continues to be prescribed rampantly in hospitals across India, the letter said.

With the cases surging in the country, there has been a spur in the demand for plasma donors, even as experts raise concerns over the efficacy of plasma therapy for Covid-19 patients.

With 3,26,098 new COVID-19 cases and 3,53,299 recoveries, India recorded more recoveries than the fresh infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data on Saturday.

The cumulative caseload touched 2,43,72,907 including 36,73,802 active cases and 2,04,32,898 total recoveries. After 3,890 deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll due to the disease has gone up to 2,66,207.