Question: Which covid treatment therapy has been dropped recently from the covid treatment protocol by Indian Council of Medical Research, in India?
a) Plasma therapy
b) Ayush Therapy
c) Stem Cell therapy
d) None of the above
Ans: a
Context
- India recently dropped convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) from its national clinical management protocol for Covid-19.
Facts
- The decision to drop plasma therapy from Covid-19 treatment protocol has been taken by AIIMS-ICMR Covid-19 National Task Force and the Health Ministry.
- This suggests that that convalescent plasma offers no therapeutic benefits in patients admitted to hospital with the disease.
About Plasma Therapy
- The therapy uses blood plasma from people who have recovered from Covid-19 to help others recover.
- Plasma is a rich source of antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that fight against the invading virus.
- Plasma from a COVID-19 recovered patient is injected into the COVID-19 infected patient.
- It involves normal blood collection practices. Later plasma is extracted from the blood using blood fractionation process. Also, a machine called Aphaeresis is used to extract plasma from the donor.
- India’s largest trial PLACID had earlier found that convalescent plasma was ineffective in arresting Covid-19.
By kameshwar shukla
Reference: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-drops-plasma-therapy-covid-treatment-7319290/