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Delhi

With rising cases, demand for plasma up

With rising cases, demand for plasma up
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New Delhi: Amid an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, the demand for plasma therapy has gone up whilst the number of people donating plasma is dwindling.

Speaking about the sudden surge cases and how it has resulted in the increasing number of plasma demand, Dr Harpreet Kaur, HOD of Transfusion Medicine (Blood Bank) & Consultant Pathology, Aakash Healthcare said, "The demand for plasma was not very high until middle of March. However since in the past week, we got about 10 cases in which plasma was required for treatment. If the cases continue to increase so rapidly, we may see an increase in demand for plasma in the coming days."

He also said that severe patients have started coming in now. Convalescent plasma therapy uses a blood component called plasma that is rich in virus-fighting antibodies from a recovered patient to aid the immune response in patients with current infection. Scientists still do not agree on whether the therapy actually helps Covid-19 patients.

However, some officials from a government hospital said that the number of donors is few, which is again creating issues for those in need of plasma. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain urged people who have recently recovered from the infection to donate plasma. He said that the donations dropped over the last two months as there were very few eligible donors owing to the low infection rate.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest plasma bank ILBS has said they are able to provide plasma to anyone in need.

"We can give plasma to anyone if he is eligible and needy. We request to bring another plasma donor. If a person doesn't find a donor, we still give plasma to him after signing a paper that he will bring the donor in next two days," Dr Sareen, Director, ILBS said.

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