Staff Reporter :
The Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) is all set to collect plasma from persons, who recovered from Covid-19, to explore the convalescent plasma therapy options to treat patients.
“It will be a beacon of hope for treatment as any vaccine or antiviral drug is yet to be developed”, DMCH Director Brig. General AKM Nasir told media on Friday.
The medical college’s Transition Medicine Department will supervise the whole process, he said.
“Before, we used to collect plasma from the blood of a patient who recovered. But now the red blood cell and white blood cell will be collected using a machine and rest of the serum will go back to the body,” added the DMCH director.
Earlier, plasma therapy was used for the first time for a patient admitted at the Ever Care Hospital in Dhaka on May 6. DMCH’s Dr Joardar Rakin Manzoor was the first to donate plasma.
The government on April 17 formed the national technical subcommittee for the plasma treatment under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On April 28, the blood transfusion department at the DMCH decided to explore the convalescent plasma therapy option to treat Covid-19 patients and was directed by DGHS to supervise other hospitals across the country in this regard.
“Patients with Covid-19 can donate blood after 14 days of their recovery. During this period, antibodies develop and it increases patient’s immunity which can help others to recover quickly,” said Prof MA Khan, head of DMCH’s Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) unit and Hematology department.
The DMCH authorities have urged all recovered patients to donate plasma so that it can be used for the treatment and recovery of critical patients.
Bangladesh reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8 and the tally of infections is now above 20,000. So far, 298 people have died from the infection while 3,882 recovered.
