Rajesh Tope: First plasma therapy turns out successful in Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday confirmed that the first experiment to use plasma therapy for treating a COVID-19 patient has been successful.

“The first plasma therapy has been successful in Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital. We are carrying out a second experiment on another patient in BYL Nair hospital, also in Mumbai. We are hopeful that it will be successful as well,” he told reporters.

In Plasma therapy, immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a recovered COVID-19 patient to treat another critical patient.

As per Union Health Ministry, Plasma therapy isn't a proven therapy. It's still in experimental stage, right now ICMR is doing it as an experiment to identify & do additional understanding of this therapy.