The study findings showed that compared with usual care alone, high-titre convalescent plasma did not reduce 28-day mortality.
The blood bank at the civic-run YCM Hospital has run out of plasma stock, which is needed for seriously ill Covid-19 patients. The civic health department on Tuesday urged residents who have recovered from Covid-19 to donate plasma. The hospital had also run out of plasma in July last year.
Dr Shankar Masolgi, who heads the blood bank at YCM hospital, said they have run out of plasma stock due to high demand from hospitals across Pimpri-Chinchwad.
“There is a demand for 50 bags every day. But we are able to churn out only 20 bags daily. The YCMH blood bank provides plasma not only for patients in civic hospitals but also private hospitals. For civic hospitals, plasma is provided free but for private hospitals, we charge Rs 6000 for each bag,” he said.
Dr Aniket Lathi, who handled plasma therapy at YCM hospital in the past, said, “In February, Pimpri-Chinchwad had fewer patients. Not many came forward to donate plasma. Plasma is effective for 28 days after a patient has recovered from Covid-19. But plasma which is three or four months old is not effective.”
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Dr Masolgi said from last March till month, only 1200 people have come forward to donate their plasma. “Over 1 lakh have recovered from Covid but not many are coming forward to donate plasma. We have been trying to create awareness and have been regularly issuing appeals to people to donate through social media and newspapers but not many are coming forward,” he said.
Doctors at the blood bank said some citizens have misconceptions about plasma donation. “They think when they have just recovered from an illness, why should they donate blood. It is not actually blood donation. We take out plasma from the blood, which is then restored into the patient’s body. Plasma has antibodies which is beneficial for a seriously-ill patient. Whether symptomatic or asymptomatic, patients who have recovered can donate plasma after around one month,” Dr Masolgi said.
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Doctors at YCMH said plasma therapy is given to seriously ill patient. “Convalescent plasma therapy is being used as the last option but all other alternatives have failed,” a doctor treating Covid patients at YCM hospital said.
In an appeal, PCMC health chief Dr Anil Roy said, “Those citizens who have recovered from Covid-19 and have completed at least a month should come forward, donate their plasma and save lives.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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