KMCH starts experimental plasma therapy on COVID-19 patients

After Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) has started experimental Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT) on COVID-19 patients.

A physician, who had recovered from coronavirus, donated his plasma to KMCH on Thursday night.

A medical team led by SM Tushar Alam, head of blood transfusion department of the hospital, administered CPT to treat a coronavirus infected patient at the hospital.

Sources said, Mohammad Manjurul, an intern of Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital and a resident of Bagerhat, donated his plasmas at the blood bank of the hospital.

Manjurul was found infected with coronavirus in April and later he recovered.

Mohammad Abdul Ahad of Khulna Medical College, director of KMCH, Munshi Reza Sekendar, coordinator of Coronavirus prevention and treatment management committee, Mehedi Newaz, Focal person of coronavirus dedicated hospital Farid Uddin Ahmed, Shoilendranath Biswas and Firoz were present there.

SM Tushar Alam, said, “ Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT) has started at the hospital and we hope we’ll see improvement in the patient within one or two days.”

Plasma is the liquid portion of blood that remains when all red and white blood cells and platelets have been removed. CPT is extracting blood plasma from an individual who has recovered from coronavirus illness and transfusing it into a patient who is sick.

CPT is, by far, the oldest treatment being tested to battle COVID-19, being successful in cases during the previous coronavirus outbreaks such as the Sars epidemic in 2003 and the Ebola virus outbreak in 2013.

Physicians used CPT effectively before the specific treatment was developed for H1N1 influenza (Spanish virus), SARS-1 and MERS virus.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) started collecting plasmas from COVID-19 recovered donors.

Earlier, CPT was used for treating a COVID-19 patient for the first time in Bangladesh at the Evercare Hospital Dhaka (formerly known as Apollo Hospital) on 6 May.

In Bangladesh, a national technical subcommittee for the plasma treatment under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) was formed in early April and DMCH’s blood transfusion department decided on 28 April to explore CPT to treat COVID-19 patients.