Bangladesh to apply plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients
Dhaka Medical College Hospital is set to start using the plasma collected from recovered COVID-19 patients to treat critically ill coronavirus patients after they got the nod from the authorities concerned to go ahead with applying the globally accepted therapy.
‘We will start the convalescent plasma therapy from Saturday as we got some kits to start with,’ said haematologist MA Khan, a professor and the head of bone marrow transplant department at the hospital.
He said that it would be the first use of the therapy in a government hospital as a private hospital had already applied the therapy recently.
He said that the plasma would be initially given to COVID-19 patients admitted to the DMCH COVID-19 unit while some other government hospitals were also interested in the application.
‘We have some donors and we are looking for more donors to build a centre in this regard,’ he said, adding that a special kit worth Tk 12,000 would be needed to collect the plasma from a donor and the authority would bear the cost at the trial stage.
Related Coverage:
- › Bangladesh coronavirus infections top 20,000, death toll nears 300
- › 11 police officials among 22 test positive for COVID-19
- › Bangladesh aviation authority extends flight suspension till May 30
He further said that the government should provide necessary kits to use the therapy on a large scale.
On May 6, a private hospital announced that it had just carried out the convalescent plasma therapy for the first time in Bangladesh after it was successfully performed in many developed countries recently.
A four-member expert team, formed by the government, had submitted a report to the authorities concerned 10 days before the first use of the therapy in the country.
MA Khan at the time alleged that the implementation of the plasma therapy was delayed due to some bureaucratic issues.
The committee, led by MA Khan, placed the report to the Directorate General of Health Services at the end of April with the recommendation to start applying the therapy as it was approved globally for a quick development of the passive immune system in a patient to fight COVID-19.
MA Khan also pointed out that the use of the plasma to treat COVID-19 patients was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for their country on April 4 as it found no side-effects of the therapy.
After the US FDA approved the plasma therapy, MA Khan submitted a proposal to the government to introduce the procedure in Bangladesh as many countries, including India, approved the treatment to fight COVID-19.
Following the proposal, the government formed the four-member technical committee headed by MA Khan.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
