Plasma Therapy Didn't Help Reduce Mortality From COVID, To Be Removed From Treatment Protocol

The much-talked-about plasma therapy, which is touted as a life-saving intervention for patients suffering from severe COVID-19 has failed to save people dying from the infection, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said.

ICMR Director-General (DG) Balram Bhargava said that plasma therapy may be deleted from the national clinical protocols for the management of Covid-19.

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"We have had a discussion with the National Task Force for COVID-19 management. We are discussing further with the joint monitoring committee and contemplating on removing the plasma therapy from the national guidelines," he said.

Plasma therapy to be removed soon

"We are more or less reaching towards a decision (to remove plasma therapy from the national clinical protocols)," Bhargava said during the weekly press briefing of the Union Health Ministry.

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The statement has come in the wake of several studies conducted on the efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy which suggested that it did not reduce mortality or progression to severe disease condition.

India conducted world's largest controlled trials

India had conducted the world's largest randomised controlled trials named PLACID Trials to study the efficacy of plasma therapy. The trials were conducted on 464 patients between April 22 and July 14 at 39 centres across the country. The study was published in a medical journal in September.

At least 464 participants were selected after screening and were hospitalized who were moderately ill confirmed COVID-19 patients. They were randomly enrolled. About 235 participants were put in the intervention arm while 229 subjects were in the control arm.

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According to the study, participants were randomized to either the control or the intervention arm. Two doses of 200 ml CP was transfused 24 hours apart in the intervention arm, the study noted.

Results not much encouraging

The result of the trials revealed that plasma therapy failed to exhibit any significant difference in mortality rates between those who received convalescent plasma and those in the control group.

"Convalescent plasma was not associated with reduction in mortality or progression to severe COVID-19. This trial has high generalized ability and approximates real-life setting of convalescent plasma therapy in settings with limited laboratory capacity. A prior measurement of neutralizing antibody titres in donors and participants may further clarify the role of CP in management of COVID-19," concluded the findings of the study.

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Besides, the ICMR chief also informed that the PLACID Trials would soon come out as a research paper in the New England Medical Journal.

"More than 350 authors contributed to the study which was accepted by the British medical journal and it is going to appear very soon as a full paper," he added.