Developing a vaccine seems to be a far-fetched idea, looking at the global coronavirus scenario. While the medical professionals around the world are busy developing a cure for the disease, doctors at Delhi’s Max Hospital tried treating a COVID-19 positive patient with Plasma Therapy.
The 49-year-old patient was tested positive on April 4 & was getting treated at the Max Hospital in Delhi. He had moderate symptoms of the disease alongside having a history of respiratory issues. After he was admitted, his condition slowly deteriorated & he was put on a ventilator while being diagnosed with pneumonia & Type-I respiratory failure.
The family of the patient requested the doctors to perform a Plasma therapy on the patient when he showed no improvement at all. They arranged for a donor & the treatment yielded positive results. He was taken off the ventilator & tested negative for COVID-19 in two consecutive reports.
While talking about the health & patient’s response to the Plasma therapy, Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Healthcare, told the media, “We are delighted that the therapy worked well in his case, opening a new treatment opportunity during these challenging times. But it is important that we also understand that plasma therapy is no magic bullet”.
“We cannot attribute 100 per cent recovery to plasma therapy only, as there are multiple factors which carved his path to recovery,” he further said.
It will now be interesting to see if the medical professionals around the world will look upon Plasma Therapy as a potential cure for COVID-19. At present times, plasma therapy is widely used for treating critical cases of Dengue and has turned out to be a life saviour for such patients.