PGI Chandigarh starts plasma therapy trial for COVID-19 patients

PGI Chandigarh has been approved as one of the national centres by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct the trial of convalescent plasma therapy in patients with serious COVID-19 infection.

"With this approval, seriously sick COVID-19 positive patients admitted in Nehru Hospital Extension Block will be eligible to get this form of treatment. In this trial, antibodies from the blood of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 are used to treat severely infected patients," the PR office of PGI said in a release.

"However, the exact role of this therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 positive patients is still debatable and hence ICMR decided to conduct a multicentric study to clarify its role in these patients," it added.

The releasse said that collaborative departments for this trial are Departments of Internal Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Transfusion Medicine, Endocrinology, Virology and Community Medicine.

The team of doctors from the Department of Transfusion Medicine will start getting in touch with patients who have recovered from COVID-19 infection and would explain the nature of the study.

The study is aimed at assessing the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma to limit complications in COVID-19 patients.

( With inputs from ANI )