Covid-19 survivor gears up to make fifth plasma donation

A serious absence of Covid-19 plasma donors has prompted a 23-year-old Covid survivor to donate plasma as many as five times.

Although multiple plasma donors are not uncommon, most make only about three donations, explained Dr Vishal Rao, Dean, Centre of Academic Research at HealthCare Global (HCG), who helped kick-start Covid plasma therapy in Karnataka.

The Covid survivor, Shahid Aboobakkar, a hardware store owner from Mangaluru, said he first came down with Covid-19 on July 2, shortly after returning to his hometown from Goa, where he had been stranded. He said he was identified as a Covid-19 patient due to a random testing in his area.

“I had already lost my sense of taste and smell, plus I had a slight cough at the time,” he said, adding that he was discharged 21 days later.

“Soon after I was discharged, I started noticing that people were clamouring for Covid antibody plasma, but that supplies were limited,” he said, explaining what triggered him to help people.

He said he travelled all the way to Bengaluru in order to make his first plasma donation at HCG Hospital on August 17. “At the time, it was one of the few places in the state which was accepting plasma donations,” Aboobakkar said.

Since then, Aboobakkar has made three more donations, the latest on Monday. He said he was planning to make his fifth donation in 11 days. Dr Rao said that most people had Covid antibodies only for a maximum of three months and most can only donate up to four times.

A study conducted on 370 Covid-19 survivors at HCG hospital found that 55% of them had high antibodies for a period of one to three months, about 40% had some antibodies, and 5% surprisingly had no antibodies.

He added that multiple donors are welcome because although there have been six lakh Covid survivors in the state, the scale of donations had been minuscule, while the demand for plasma had reached high levels.