New Delhi, April 28: After a series of recent announcements by some state governments regarding the use of convalescent plasma therapy in COVID patients, the central government categorically said on Tuesday that it was not yet a proven or approved therapy to treat coronavirus and its use was illegal and could even be life threatening for patients.
Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said on Tuesday that plasma therapy was still under experimental stages in India and the world and the ICMR has not yet approved this therapy for use in patients.
“The ICMR is currently undertaking a pan India study to determine the efficacy of plasma therapy in COVID patients and the plasma from cured patients can only be used for trial and research purposes and not for treatment. Such use is illegal and can have life threatening complications for those who are administered plasma,” Agarwal made clear.
He said until ICMR published scientific evidence to approve plasma therapy as an approved treatment therapy in COVID patients it cannot be used by anyone for treatment.
Even the US FDA has approved the use of plasma therapy only for experimental purposes and not for treatment.
Worldwide studies are currently underway on various therapies against COVID, plasma being one of them.
Antibody rich blood from COVID cured patients is being currently tested for evidence of whether it can help cure or decrease the severity of the infection.
Agarwal also said 17 districts in the country have had no coronavirus cases in 28 days.
India reported 1,543 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking total number of cases to 29,435 infections, the ministry said.
Some 6,868 COVID-19 patients—23.3 per cent of total cases— have recovered so far, the health ministry. With agency inputs
