COVID-19 — Donating plasma: Here’s everything you need to know

After COVID-19 wreaks havoc across India, thousands of patients and caregivers continue to search for plasma donors.

Several calls related to plasma donation from a particular blood group is a common scene on the social media platform, often for critical patients in the ICU.

The number of people seeking plasma is very high in comparison. Once a person recovers from COVID-19, he can donate plasma for plasma therapy.

Many organisation including Delhi Police has urged people to donate in large numbers so that more and more lives can be saved.

Covid -19 -What is plasma therapy?

Plasma therapy, broadly known as 'convalescent plasma therapy', is a procedure to treat coronavirus infection. Plasma is a component of our blood. Nearly 55% of your blood is plasma. It is yellow in colour. Laboratories can separate plasma from blood with special devices called plasma tubes through a process called centrifugation. It is like blood donation, however, the same plasma gets separated from the blood and the remaining blood will be transferred back to your body resulting in zero blood loss. The plasma contains that antibodies that can help a patient fight the pathogen and recover from the disease.

When your body has fought an infection, the antibodies produced are stored in the plasma. That means if you’ve contracted COVID, then antibodies that can fight the COVID infection will be present in your plasma. The plasma from a person who has recovered from a disease is called convalescent plasma.

Here are the guidelines issued by the Centre to donate plasma to COVID-19 patients are as follows:

1. Always carry a hard copy of the COVID-19 negative report (RT-PCR or rapid antigen test) within 4 months of the day of donation and your Aadhar Card (front and back).

2. Donate only after 14 days of a COVID-19 positive report if the person is asymptomatic or after 14 days of symptoms if the person is symptomatic.

3. Women who have ever been pregnant cannot donate COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

4. A person who has received COVID-19 vaccination will not be able to donate plasma for 28 days from the date of vaccination.

5. A person can not donate if he/she gets rejected for the lack of adequate antibodies in the blood.

6. Please contact hospital authorities for any other information in advance, on phone.