Kerala gets nod for trial of plasma therapy-THE HINDU-10-04-2020

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The proposal submitted to the Indian Council of Medical Research says that the Transfusion Medicine Department of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology would help the Health Department in exploring the possibility of convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 treatment.

Getting the clinical protocol for administering plasma therapy cleared ahead by the ICMR is just part of our preparedness, that should we get severe COVID-19 patients during the second or third wave, we should be able to make use of this option,” he added. When reports that HIV antivirals might be potentially useful in treating COVID-19 patients, then too Kerala had sought ICMR’s early clearance for the protocol in January itself, he pointed out. While the ICMR has cleared the clinical trial protocol, the State might at some point need to submit an expanded access protocol to the council, so that severely ill patients can be administered the treatment on compassionate grounds. It said that one dose of convalescent plasma with a high concentration of neutralising antibodies was well-tolerated by patients and that it can rapidly reduce the viral load in patients and improve clinical symptoms significantly.