Plasma Therapy

Covid-19 continues to wreck havoc across the globe, scientists are racing to develop antidotes for the new coronavirus, which began infecting humans late last year. Scientists and researchers are exploring various avenues to come up with medical treatments that can fight the novel coronavirus. One such treatment that's in focus right now is Convalescent Plasma Therapy.

After China and the US, India has given a go ahead for framing a protocol to conduct a clinical trial for convalescent plasma therapy. The therapy has been used experimentally in the past and so has become a ray of hope in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

What exactly is Plasma Therapy:

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.

In this way this therapy is being used in many countries to prevent the cause and damage by the novel Covid'19.

What is Plasma?

Plasma is the liquid portion of whole blood. It is composed largely of water and proteins, and it provides a medium for red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets to circulate through the body. Platelets, also called thrombocytes, are blood cells that cause blood clots and other necessary growth healing functions.

Platelet activation plays a key role in the body's natural healing process.