Plasma shortage for Covid19 patients in Vadodara

Only 150 recovered patients donated plasma

Vadodara witness the spike of Covid positive patients and there is a growing concern over adopting other therapies by hospital for effective treatment. Plasma is one such therapy which shows great results to treat Corona patients. However the shortage of donors lead to a growing concern after major hospitals have started the therapy to treat patients.

Plasma from coronavirus survivors contains antibodies which offer protection against the virus when transferred to infected patients. The treatment, called convalescent plasma therapy, is provided to those not responding to conventional treatment.
The awareness also increases the demand of Plasma but with less donors the banks are waiting for more recovered patients to come forward and donate.

As per the VMC data till 20th Sept 2020, 8901 patients have recovered from Corona virus but as per Dr. Vijay Shah, MD of Indu Blook Bank, only 150 people have come forward to donate plasma which is very less.

“Plasma therapy has shown promising results during earlier epidemics like Swine Flu, Spanish Flu and now also in Covid treatment the therapy is effective on patients. The sudden spike in demand is because the therapy is now recommended at early stage of treatment,” says Dr. Vijay Shah.

He also added that most recovered patients hesitate to donate plasma due to fear of revisiting the hospital again. So there is need of awareness in them for plasma donation which cure a Covid patient more effectively.

With plasma donation camps organised in the city, they are able to reach people to aware them about the plasma donation. But there is still a big gap to fill as the percentage of donors against the recovered patients is still very large. Dr. Shah is hopeful that people shall come forward to donate and save lives in fight against the deadly virus.