BMC urges people to register on a website in order to donate plasma

The Brihanmumbai Corporation, in an initiative to motivate the citizens, has taken to Twitter to urge people to donate their plasma. The BMC and the doctors at the Kasturba hospital have created a website where the survivors of the coronavirus disease can go and register in order to donate their plasma.

Are you a #CovidSurvivor?
You can now be a #CovidWarrior!

BMC and Kasturba doctors are leading the plasma research in Mumbai and have created a website where #CoronaSurvivors can register to donate plasma: https://t.co/xww9Ffp5di#SignUp#SaveLives#NaToCorona pic.twitter.com/QHzcoxXQOJ

— माझी Mumbai, आपली BMC (@mybmc) June 29, 2020

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had launched ‘Project Platina’ which is touted to be the world’s largest trial cum treatment project for COVID-19 patients. This treatment was earlier said to benefit critically ill patients in the state. However, the Maharashtra government on Monday approved the use of plasma therapy for mild and moderate cases as well. Thackeray launched the treatment project - ‘Project Platina’ - via video conferencing and allocated  ₹16.65 crores for the same from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. 

Plasma therapy in the case of COVID-19 pertains to the method in which the blood plasma is taken from the patients who have recovered from the coronavirus and are then added to the cell cultures in order to effectively let the antibodies in the plasma neutralise the virus and save the life of a newly infected person.

The process of treatment will involve transfusion of plasma, a blood component, from a recovered patient to an infected patient. There are said to be three criteria to be eligible in order to become a donor. Firstly, the person has to have been infected with the coronavirus and completely recovered. The individual would need to complete 28 days from the time of testing negative for the virus and needs to have a haemoglobin level of 12.5 grams per decilitre.

The Indian Council of Medical Research has been offering permissions to select hospitals to conduct convalescent plasma therapy on patients affected by the coronavirus. The ICMR had earlier allowed Kasturba and Nair hospital in Mumbai, which are run by the BMC, to conduct plasma trials. The ICMR, in the past, had mentioned that it has approved trials for plasma therapy at 28 institutions, with the six of them being in the state of Maharashtra.

Hospitals in Mumbai have also started administering Tocilizumab in order to treat COVID-19 patients. The administration of the drug depends on a couple of factors like a person’s weight, round the clock oxygen support and CT scans for the critically ill. The medicine, ideally given to patients suffering from arthritis have been given to over 80 patients in KEM, Sion, Nair and Kasturba hospital.

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