Recovered from COVID-19, Lucknow doctor donates plasma for treatment of patients
Lucknow: Tauseef Khan, a resident doctor at the KGMU here who recently defeated COVID-19, began the holy month of Ramzan, which is considered a time for giving, by donating his plasma for treatment of others suffering from the deadly disease.
Khan, in his late 20s, contracted coronavirus from a patient while working at the King George's Medical University and tested positive for the infection on March 17.
He was discharged from the hospital on April 7 and is now back at work after a 14-day home quarantine.
"Dr D Himanshu of Medicine Department, who is looking after the treatment of COVID-19 patients, asked me if I wanted to become the first plasma donor (of KGMU). I immediately said yes as nothing could be greater than being able to save the life of a patient in the holy month of Ramzan," Khan said.
He said he observed his first 'roza' on Saturday and gave his blood after consulting clerics whether it is permissible to do so while fasting.
Head of Transfusion Medicine, KGMU, Tulika Chandra told PTI, "The work on administering medical treatment to COVID-19 patients through plasma therapy began on Saturday."
"In this context, the blood sample of Dr Tauseef Khan, a resident doctor who had recovered from COVID-19, was taken for testing. In the test, the condition of the antibodies was found quite good," she said.
Chandra said, "In the evening, the process of extracting plasma from his body started, and almost 500 millilitres of plasma was extracted. The process took almost one-and-half hour."
She said Khan's plasma will be administered on Monday or Tuesday to a patient who is in a serious condition and in whose case medicines aren't working.
"The patient will be given 200 millilitres of plasma. In other words, plasma donated by one patient (who has recovered from COVID-19) can be used for the treatment of two patients. If there is no positive result after the first 200 millilitres of plasma has been infused, then another 200 millilitres is infused," she elaborated.
Asked about the chances of success of plasma therapy, Chandra said, "It seems that the chances of (success of) plasma therapy are good, and it is for this reason that this therapy is gradually being adopted across the country for treatment of COVID-19 patients. We are hopeful that KGMU will emerge successful in plasma therapy."
On April 21, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had asked the state's medical authorities to promote plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients after examining its efficacy.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recently allowed states to start clinical trials of plasma therapy. Several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using it for treatment of coronavirus patients.
Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma from a cured COVID-19 patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient.
The idea behind this therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a cured coronavirus patient to treat another critical patient.
The recovered COVID-19 patient's blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19. Once the blood of the recovered patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against coronavirus in the second person's body.
The process of donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour.
Several countries around the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.
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Assam: 20 illegal immigrants pushed back to Bangladesh
Guwahati (PTI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said 20 foreign nationals were apprehended in the state and pushed back to Bangladesh.
"Rude people don't understand soft language... We continuously remind ourselves of this prophetic line when we expel infiltrators from Assam who don't leave themselves. For instance, these 20 illegal Bangladeshis who were PUSHED BACK last night," Sarma said in a post on X.
He, however, did not share details pertaining to the location where they were nabbed or their nationality.
"Assam will fight, Pushbacks WILL CONTINUE," Sarma asserted.
Sribhumi, Cachar, Dhubri and South Salmara-Mankachar districts in Assam share 267.5 km of the international border with Bangladesh.
There is an Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Sutarkandi in Sribhumi. The northeast has a total of three ICPs along the India-Bangladesh border, the other two being at Dawki in Meghalaya and Akhaura in Tripura.
Another ICP in the region is at Darranga in Assam along the India-Bhutan border.
The Assam Police had earlier said that the force and the BSF would do everything possible to prevent any attempt by non-Indians to enter the country from Bangladesh, as per law, following a political turmoil in the neighbouring nation in 2024.
However, all Indian passport holders have been allowed to return from trouble-hit Bangladesh through the entry point in the state.
