Plasma therapy for COVID-19 at experimental stage, using it for treatment without approval illegal, says Centre

The Centre on Tuesday said the use if plasma therapy without approval from the relevant authority can not only be harmful to the patient but also illegal.

Speaking during Tuesday's joint press briefing, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, said plasma therapy is not approved and must not be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

“ICMR has stated very clearly that there is no approved therapy for COVID-19, including plasma therapy. There is no evidence at present to use this as a treatment," Agarwal said.

"The Council has launched an experimental study on the efficacy of plasma therapy as a treatment for COVID-19. Till the study is approved, no one should use it. Doing so can be harmful to the patient, it can have life-threatening complications if it is not used as per proper process and guidelines Moreover," the official said.

He added that using plasma therapy before its approval would also be illegal. Till then, it is unjustified to spread any claim about the effectiveness of this therapy, he said.

In convalescent plasma therapy, antibodies from the blood of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 are used to treat serious patients.

Last week, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the plasma therapy has been conducted on some coronavirus patients and it has shown encouraging results. He had also called on the recovered patients to donate plasma so it can help other COVID-19 patients.

“In the last few days, we have tried plasma therapy on four patients at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital. Till now the results are encouraging," Kejriwal said during a press conference on Friday.

Earlier, Max Hospital in Saket, a private medical facility, had claimed that a man treated with plasma therapy had recovered, the first in the country.

As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, hospitals and institutions planning to provide this treatment should do so in a clinical trial with protocols which are cleared by the Institutional Ethics Committee.

At this moment, the ICMR does not recommend this as a treatment option outside of clinical trials.

The study is aimed at assessing the efficacy of convalescent plasma to limit complications in COVID-19 patients and to evaluate the safety of treatment with anti-SARS-CoV-2 plasma in coronavirus-infected patients.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has received applications from institutes expressing interest in participating in a randomised controlled study to assess the safety and efficacy of plasma therapy.