The Delhi Plasma Bank, India’s first ‘plasma bank’, is now operational at the state-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS). The plasma bank was established at ILBS in collaboration with the Delhi government.
CM Arvind Kejriwal said that COVID-19 patients can now donate their plasma 14 days after recovery as the plasma bank to treat novel coronavirus has started functioning in Delhi.
Plasma therapy involves transfusing antibodies taken from a recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood into a coronavirus infected patient to fight the infection by helping kickstart the immune system.
As plasma donation was happening in a scattered way, this idea of setting up a plasma bank was to bring it in one place in an organized manner.
The person willing to donate his plasma will be contacted by a government doctor and the basic details regarding his eligibility requirements and medical history will be obtained. After this, the person can donate his plasma at the ILBS and the transportation expenses of the donor will be handled by the government.
Who are eligible?
Plasma can be donated by those
weighing not less than 50 kg and between the age of 18 and 60.The people who are not eligible to be donors include those having a complaint of hypertension, those who have lung, kidney, and heart disease, people whose blood sugar level is not stable, and who take insulin, along with a woman, who has been pregnant in her life.
People who have recovered from the COVID-19 infection can get the details for plasma donation by containing 1031 and WhatsApp number — 8800007722. An appreciation letter would also be provided to the donor.
The total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in India surpasses more than half a million, with over 20000 deaths in the country. Overtaking Russia on Sunday, India is now the third-highest country with 6,97,887 cases as of 6 July. However, the recovery rate in India is high and has a low mortality rate compared to other countries. The highest number of COVID cases are reported in the US, followed by Brazil.
Source
India’s First COVID19 Plasma Bank
