JOIN USManipal Hospitals on Monday launched a plasma bank in the city for advanced treatment of Covid-19 patients and urged those who had recovered from coronavirus to come forward as donors.
"The key objective of this drive is to make plasma therapy readily accessible to all Covid-19 patients seeking treatment in Manipal Hospitals and registered through AMBER HEALTH," the hospital said in a statement.
It appealed to all coronavirus recovered patients to come forward to help those in need to win the battle against the pandemic. Dr C Shivaram, Head-Transfusion Medicine, Manipal Hospitals, said plasma therapy has turned out to be the shield of defence that can fight Covid-19 and is a good supplement to treatment modalities in use.
He said a patient must be free from Covid-19 symptoms for at least 14 days to qualify as a plasma donor. "Patients need not worry about their antibodies during donation as we collect only a small portion of the antibodies.
Additionally, in case of re-infection by the Covid-19 virus, the body can make antibodies very quickly within hours,because of the memory White cells (B cells) in the blood," Dr Shivaram said.