This story is from July 10, 2020

More turn up to donate plasma in Hubballi

In a huge boost for the therapy, four patients who recovered have donated plasma to treat patients at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, (KIMS) Hubballi. The institute had successfully treated a 65-year-old through plasma therapy recently.
More turn up to donate plasma in Hubballi
Representative image
HUBBALLI: In a huge boost for the therapy, four patients who recovered have donated plasma to treat patients at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, (KIMS) Hubballi. The institute had successfully treated a 65-year-old through plasma therapy recently.
Despite the success, KIMS had found it extremely difficult to convince patients to donate plasma since none were willing. However, things are now looking up.
Dr Ram Koulgud, principal investigator and in-charge of placid plasma trials, KIMS, told TOI that in the past two weeks, four cured patients donated plasma and more are willing to donate.

“We are collecting plasma at the cancer hospital in Navanagar using an apheresis machine [which separates blood into various components such as platelets, plasma etc],” Koulgud said. “We are still awaiting approval from the Drug Controller General of India to use this machine at KIMS. We draw blood enough for 420ml plasma from each donor, but we administer only 400ml to a patient. The rest is used for test purposes.”
He went on to say, “People who have been cured, whose oxygen saturation is 92% and above and respiration rate of more than 24 breaths per minute, are eligible to donate plasma. If the donor is diabetic, their blood pressure and diabetes should be under control.”
He said the son of the first patient who was cured through plasma therapy has donated plasma. “We expect two more from Dharwad to donate in the next couple of days,” he said. “We have a list of people who are cured and we are calling them and asking them to donate blood. We are happy people are coming forward to donate. We might try the therapy on one more patient soon.”
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