By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistani doctors have claimed a successful clinical trial of passive immuinization after a coronavirus patient recovered in the port city of Karachi, through plasma therapy.
“Alhamdolillah, the first coronavirus patient treated through passive immuinization technique has recovered, and discharged from the hospital,” Dr Tahir Shamis, head of the National Institute of Blood Diseases told media on Sunday.
Dr Shamsi explained that the patient was administered plasma on April 30 and completely recovered on May 8. The patient’s second test of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, came out negative, he added.
Currently, he added, 12 COVID-19 patients were undergoing the plasma therapy as the authorities had set a target of 350 patients to undergo the clinical trial.
Eight approved clinical trial facilities for convalescent plasma across Pakistan, have already begun the process of collecting the plasma of patients recovered from the coronavirus.
کورونا کے مریضوں کو پورے مُلک میں پلازما کی فراہمی شروع ہو چکی ہے الحمد لِللّٰہ۔
مریضوں کی تعداد میں تشویشناک اضافے سے پلازما کے عطیات کی
ضرورت میں اضافہ درکار ہے۔
جو لوگ کورونا سے صحتیاب ہو چکے ہیں برائے مہربانی اپنا پلازما عطیہ کریں۔ ہیلپ لائن پر کال کریں: 03332976390— Tahir Shamsi FRCP (London & Edin), FRCPath(Lon) (@62Shamsi) May 3, 2020
“Let me make it very clear that it’s a successful clinical trial only. We cannot declare it an approved treatment for the novel virus at this stage,” said Shamsi , who heads the team of hematologists that has been assigned for the clinical trials, was quoted by media.
“We still have to wait to say something definitive in this regard after more and more successful clinical trials,” he maintained.
Passive immunization is not a new medical treatment and has been done for the last 125 years.
According to Shamsi, the therapy was used to cure patients of diseases like SARS, Ebola and influenza in the recent past.
At present, the method was being used at 1,500 hospitals in some 80 countries to cure the coronavirus patients.
The number of coronavirus patients in Pakistan have surpassed 30000 mark with 659 deaths.
The government of Sindh had approved the use of passive immunisation therapy on April 30 to treat coronavirus patients across the province. Supervised by Dr Shamsi, the technique was set to be presented to other provinces for approval before a detailed strategy could be implemented in the hospitals across Pakistan.
“Under this technique, blood plasma from a healthy person is extracted and injected into the blood of a patient suffering from the coronavirus,” the hematologist said.
“After the transfer, the injected plasma generates anti-bodies in the immune system of the patient suffering from the coronavirus. These anti-bodies eventually fight off the virus,” he had added.
