A few days after approving clinical trials of plasma therapy for COVID-19 treatment, India has dismissed the treatment, saying that it remains in experimental stage.
India’s ministry of health and family welfare joint secretary Lav Aggarwal said there is no evidence yet that plasma therapy can be used as a treatment.
He mentioned that the Indian Council of Medical Research has launched a national level study and “until ICMR concludes its study and a robust scientific proof is available, plasma therapy should be used only for research or trial purpose”.
Aggarwal warned that if plasma therapy is not used in a proper manner under proper guidelines then it can also cause life threatening complications. “Until it's approved no one should use it, it'll be harmful to the patient and illegal,” he said.
Last week, Delhi’s health minister said that plasma therapy was administered to six patients in Delhi and four of them had almost recovered. All of them were critical patients.
While China’s National Health Commission in March termed the therapy as effective on some severe patients, it warned against its use as a preventative measure for healthy people to gain immunity.
However, the US Food and Drug Administration announced on March 24 that it would allow researchers to begin experimental COVID-19 treatments using the plasma obtained from an individual recovered from coronavirus.
