What is Plasma Therapy: A Possible Treatment For Coronavirus?

What is Plasma Therapy?

As COVID-19 grips the world in its one of the worst pandemic, countries are battling to combat the deadly virus. Scientists are trying to fight with the novel coronavirus and exploring ways to defeat it. Various medical treatments are being experimented to decrease the effects of the disease. One such treatment that India is trying to explore is Convalescent Plasma Therapy.

Now, many of you might be wondering what is plasma therapy? Is it a possible treatment for coronavirus? The plasma therapy is a process in which the antibodies of a COVID-19 recovered patient are used to treat the affected patient. The blood of the patient recovered from the deadly virus is used to treat the patient dealing with the virus.

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What is Plasma?

Plasma is the yellowish liquid portion of the blood and comprises 55% of the blood. It consists of enzymes, water, salt, other proteins and antibodies. It acts as a transporting medium in blood. If we remove RBCs, WBCs and platelets from the blood, then Plasma is what remains.

How does Plasma Therapy work?

In this treatment, a recovered COVID-19 patient is asked to donate their plasma as it contains antibodies that have generated the ability to fight the deadly virus. This therapy can also be used to immunize those who are at a high risk of contracting the virus.

After ingesting the antibodies into the infected person, it will begin targeting and fighting the virus in the second person. The therapy can be described as a preventive measure and not a cure to coronavirus as of now.

Plasma Therapy: A Ray of Hope

The trials done on 4 COVID-19 affected patients in Delhi produced encouraging results. The condition of the patients got better after treating with the Plasma therapy. Although, the results are positive but more research is required to perform the therapy on a larger scale. It is too early to declare Plasma therapy as a cure. With this, it is definitely a ray of hope to several people across the nation.

Plasma Therapy Used in The Past 

This is not the first time that Plasma therapy is considered to treat a virus. Earlier, it was suggested by WHO in 2014 to treat Ebola virus from the patients who recovered. In 2015, a protocol was established for treating Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) with Plasma Therapy. Experiments have already been performed in the past but the use of this treatment on a large scale is yet to be analyzed.

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