The first-ever plasma therapy conducted in Mumbai on a a Covid-19 patient at Lilavati Hospital was successful, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope announced on Wednesday.

Talking to media persons after attending a meeting called to review the Coronavirus situation in Nashik, Tope said: “The plasma therapy conducted on a Covid-19 patient at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai was successful. Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi called me and confirmed the success of the first plasma therapy at Lilavati Hospital".

“The second plasma therapy on a Covid-19 patient will take place at BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai. The doctors at Nair Hospital are confident that the plasma therapy on the Coronavirus patient there will also be successful,” the minister said.

“If the prescribed guidelines are followed during the plasma therapy, the therapy is bound to be successful.  We intend to carry out a plama therapy in a Pune hospital as well,” Tope said.

It may be recalled that on April 24, the Centre had given a go-ahead to the Maharashtra government to undertake plasma therapy to treat infected Coronavirus patients in the state.

Announcing this, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope had said on Friday last: “Some days back, we had requested the Centre to permit us to undertake “Plama Therapy” to treat Covid-19 patients in the state. Today, the Union Health Minister gave us a formal go ahead to us in this regard”. 

Given the gravity of Coronavirus situation in the state, “Plasma therapy” may prove to be a boon for Maharashtra. The convalescent “plasma therapy” aims at using antibodies from the blood of a recovered Covid-19 patient to treat those critically affected by the virus. The therapy can also used to immunise those at a high risk of contracting the virus — such as health workers, families of patients and other high-risk contacts.

This therapy's concept is simple and is based on the premise that the blood of a patient who has recovered from Covid-19 contains antibodies with the specific ability of fighting novel coronavirus. The theory is that the recovered patient's antibodies, once ingested into somebody under treatment, will begin targetting and fighting the novel coronavirus in the second patient.

Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run BYL Nair hospital, which has been declared as the nodal centre for the donation of plasma, has so far received three units from donors.

Informed hospital said that as many as five other donors were in the process of being screened,  while many recovered patients were being contacted to become donors.