Health dept to tap potential donors

A clinical trial on passive immunisation with convalescent plasma is taking place at the state-run Infectious Diseases & Beliaghata General Hospital in a joint project with CSRI-IICB, for which plasma is collected at MCH. Fifteen donors have contributed to the plasma pool. Health department officials said they were working on the mechanism on approaching potential plasma donors.
“A plasma bank is a repository where all plasma collected from donors will be kept under specific conditions. It requires precise record-maintenance,” added Bhattacharya, who is also one of the investigators in the clinical trial. Any person who has recovered from Covid-19, who does not have certain underlying health conditions, can be a donor after about 21 days of testing negative.
Alok Roy, the chairman of Medica Superspecialty Hospital, which is planning the first privately run plasma bank, said: “Recovery should be the rule in Covid treatment and death the exception. We believe plasma will help in that direction, which is why we planned the bank. We started with one donor on Monday.”