After various studies and discussions by experts suggested that plasma therapy on COVID-19 patients was found ineffective, the treatment protocol has now been dropped from the clinical management guidelines by the Centre. The decision came on the basis of recommendations of experts from AIIMS, ICMR-COVID-19 National Task Force and Joint Monitoring Group of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and the Government of India. At the stage of early moderate disease, the guidelines earlier allowed “off label" use of plasma therapy. 

Members of the ICMR-National Task Force for COVID-19 met on Friday to deliberate upon the effectiveness of plasma therapy which gained momentum last year just during the onset of the pandemic. However, in the recent meeting, all members of the task force were in favour of removing the use of convalescent plasma from the Clinical Guidance for Management of Adult COVID-19 patients citing its ineffectiveness and inappropriate use in several cases. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that they will issue an advisory on the matter soon. 

Plasma Therapy Ineffective

The plasma therapy, which includes transfusion of COVID-19 antibodies from the blood of a recovered patient to the one being treated, has not been found effective in reducing the progression to severe disease nor has a decrease in the fatality rate been observed, sources added. The development comes just days after a group of medical practitioners wrote Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) K VijayRaghavan cautioning against the 'irrational and non-scientific use' of convalescent plasma for COVID-19. 

In the letter to PSA Raghavan, which was also marked to ICMR chief Balram Bhargava and AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, public health professionals alleged that the current guidelines on plasma therapy are not based on existing evidence and pointed out some very early evidence that indicates a possible association between emergence of variants with “lower susceptibility to neutralising antibodies in immunosuppressed" people given plasma therapy.

"The current research evidence unanimously indicates that there is no benefit offered by convalescent plasma for treatment of COVID-19. However, it continues to be prescribed rampantly in hospitals across India,” the letter said.

COVID cases in India 

With the second wave of COVID-19 still wreaking havoc, India witnessed a single-day rise of 2,81,386 COVID-19 cases on May 17, which pushed its tally to 2,49,65,463, according to the health ministry. The death toll due to the viral disease climbed to 2,74,390 with 4,106 more people succumbing to it, the ministry's data showed. After registering a steady rise for two months, the active cases have reduced to 35,16,997.