Use of convalescent plasma therapy in coronavirus-infected patients does not help in cutting down mortality or progression to severe Covid-19, a multi-centric study funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed and has now appeared on medRxiv, a preprint server.
There was however some minor benefit in terms of alleviation of some symptoms though for those received the therapy.
The trial, called PLACID, which was carried out from April 22 to July 14 this year in 39 hospitals across 14 states and Union Territories involved 464 moderately ill patients with breathing difficulties and oxygen saturation level of less than 93 per cent, of whom 235 were given convalescent plasma with antibodies against SARS CoV2 received from donors who had recovered from the virus, while 229 received only standard care. The trial was registered with the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI) for the purpose, it said.
Those in the intervention group were transfused with two doses of 200 ml plasma 24 hours apart. Both the intervention and control groups were compared after 28 days.
The findings, released now on a preprint server of health research, have shown that 34 patients or 13.6 per cent who received plasma therapy died while 31 patients or 14.6 per cent who did not receive it, succumbed to the infection. Also, 17 patients in each group progressed to have severe disease.
“CP was not associated with a reduction in mortality or progression to severe COVID-19,” noted the authors led by ICMR scientist Dr Aparna Mukherjee who led the trial.
The findings have come at the time when various State Governments have been pushing the therapy and have set up plasma banks after the national Covid-19 clinical management protocol allowed it as an investigational therapy.