Aiming to save lives of Covid-19 infected patients, Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Saturday started collecting plasmas for starting Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT) on experimental basis.
The Director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital Brigadier General AKM Nasir Uddin inaugurated plasma collection on the second floor of the new building of the hospital on Saturday (May 16th).
CPT is extracting blood plasma from an individual who has recovered from novel coronavirus illness and transfusing it into a patient who is sick.
The director said, ‘The world is infected with the corona virus. We are no different. With the approval of the health ministry we have started this plasma collection today and we already have three doctors as donor."
Head of the Department of Hematology, Dr. MA Khan said, "Plasma collection has started at 11:15 am today. The plasma of the coronadoids is being collected in the blood transfusion department of DMCH. On April 12, we were first asked to work on this. A four-members committee was formed. After seeing our report, the approval was given."
Dr. MA Khan further said, "The corona winning doctors are, Dr. Dildar Hossain Badal of Suhrawardy Hospital, Dr. Raunak Jamil Piyas and Dr. Hashibul Islam of Mitford Hospital. Plasmas will be taken from the bodies of these three doctors. The collected plasma will then be tested to see how many antibodies it contains."
India, the UK, the USA, Italy, China and some other countries started CPT for Covid-19 patients to reduce fatalities from the disease.
Earlier on April 12, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) called for applications to study the safety and efficacy of CPT in managing complications associated with Covid-19.
On April 25, the UK government approved the clinical trial of CPT to help its National Health Service (NHS) for treating Covid-19 patients.
World physicians used CPT effectively before the specific treatment was developed for H1N1 influenza (Spanish virus), Ebola, SARS-1 and MERS virus.
