COVID-19: Man treated with plasma therapy recovers in India for the first time

Enamul Hafiz Latifee compiles,

In a first for India, a COVID-19 patient in Delhi who was treated with convalescent plasma therapy has completely recovered, India Today reported on Sunday, 26 April 2020.

A 49-year-old, male patient who had tested positive for coronavirus infection on 4 April was admitted at the dedicated COVID-19 facility in East Block of Max Hospital, Saket, with moderate symptoms and a history of fever and respiratory issues, the same day. He had been taken off ventilator support seven days ago, the India Today report said.

When he was admitted, he had moderate symptoms but had a history of respiratory issues. His condition started deteriorating in the next few days and he had to be put on ventilator support after he developed pneumonia with Type-I respiratory failure, according to the report.

The family came forward to arrange a donor for extracting plasma. The donor had recovered from the infection (confirmed by two consecutive negative reports) three weeks before her donation and again tested COVID-19 negative at the time of donation along with other standard tests to rule out infections like Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV. The 49-year-old critically-ill patient was administered fresh plasma as a treatment modality as a side-line to standard treatment protocols on the night of 14 April.

According to doctors, a single donor can donate 400ml of plasma which can save two lives, as 200ml is sufficient to treat one patient.

After receiving the treatment, the patient showed progressive improvement and by the fourth day, was weaned off ventilator support on the morning of Saturday, 18 April and continued on supplementary oxygen, thereafter. He had started taking oral feed within 24-hours of being off ventilator support. He was shifted to a room with round-the-clock monitoring on Monday after testing negative twice within 24 hours.

With sustained efforts by a team of doctors comprising Dr. Omender Singh, Dr. Deven Juneja, and Dr. Sangeeta Pathak, along with all frontline healthcare workers including junior doctors, nurses, GDAs and lab technicians among others, the patient was finally discharged today. He will be home quarantined for another two weeks as per government guidelines.