Pakistani Youth Donates His Blood Plasma For Treatment Of COVID-19 Patients

The 22-year-old patient who was the first Pakistani to contract and recover from COVID-19 has donated his blood plasma for the treatment of severely ill coronavirus patients

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2020 ) :The 22-year-old patient who was the first Pakistani to contract and recover from COVID-19 has donated his blood plasma for the treatment of severely ill coronavirus patients.

The development took place at the Children's Hospital in Karachi. This is the first event of its kind in the country, said Dr Saquib Ansari, a renowned haematologist and the CEO of the hospital, a private mews channel reported on Thursday.

"We need no funds, new machinery or workforce as Children's Hospital Karachi is ready to offer its services free of cost," Dr Ansari said.

We would use existing machines that extract plasma for dengue treatment to obtain plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients, the haematologist said. There are trained medical workers available who can carry out this procedure, he added.

The blood plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients contains antibodies that can fight the novel coronavirus.

The Children's Hospital is collaborating with Houston Methodist Hospital, which was the first to administer plasma therapy to COVID-19 patients in the US.

Dr Ansari highlighted the example of the US where the FDA has publicly appealed recovered patients to donate their plasma.

"We are fighting the coronavirus on three fronts," the haematologist said. "We are trying to prevent it from spreading, treating infected patients and making sure there is awareness and not panic about the disease in society." The cooperation of the first COVID-19 patient is to be lauded, he said, while appealing to other recovered patients to come forward and donate. Recovered patients between the ages of 18 and 50 can safely donate their plasma.

"Subjected to the permission from authorities, Children's Hospital Karachi is able to receive plasma from all recovered patients of the virus in Pakistan and process the donated plasma within five days," Dr Ansari said.

More than 100 people have already recovered from COVID-19 in the country and most of them are women, according to the haematologist.