KMCH starts Plasma Therapy for treatment of Covid-19 patients

After Dhaka Medical College Hospital, now Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) has started Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT) on experimental basis, aiming to save lives of Covid-19 infected patients.

A physician, who had recovered from coronavirus, donated his plasmas to KMCH for the first time on Thursday night.

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

Sources said, Dr 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.

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

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

Dr SM Tushar Alam, said, “ Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT) has started at the hospital  and we hope we’ll see positive change 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 May 6.

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 April 28 to explore CPT to treat COVID-19 patients.