Defence Current Affairs: Convalescent Plasma Therapy!

What is Convalescent Plasma Therapy?

Convalescent plasma therapy involves the extraction of plasma from the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients. These people are expected to have a good amount of antibodies, which, by way of plasma, will be administered to COVID-19 patients. These antibodies help the ill patient to fight the infection.

History of Plasma Therapy Application

• The plasma therapy was extensively used during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. It is also used for the treatment of the Ebola epidemic, which started in 2013, and has also given very good results against SARS. Even now, there is no vaccine or cure for SARS
• The plasma therapy was widely used for the treatment of measles, bacterial pneumonia and numerous other infections before modern medicine came along

Conditions for an individual to donate plasma 

• The donors have to be free of COVID-19 for at least 28 days.
• Have no symptoms for at least 14 days prior to donation and 
• Have a negative lab test for active COVID-19 disease.

How does this therapy work?

• When a person has Covid-19, their immune system responds by creating proteins called antibodies especially designed to target that germ.
• Those antibodies float in survivors' blood, specifically plasma, the yellowish liquid part of blood for months, even years.
• In this therapy, blood is drawn from a person who has recovered from the disease and the serum is screened for virus-neutralizing antibodies.
• Convalescent plasma or immunoglobulins have been used as a last resort to improve the survival rate of patients with SARS whose condition continued to deteriorate despite treatment with pulsed methylprednisolone.

What is the process of donating plasma?

• The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour. Plasma donors are hooked up to a small device that removes plasma while simultaneously returning red blood cells to their bodies
• Unlike regular blood donation in which donors have to wait for red blood cells to replenish between donations, plasma can be donated more frequently, as often 4-6 times in a month, but not more than 1000 ml of plasma can be collected from one donor in a month
• One donor's 200 ml of plasma is sufficient to treat one patient

Status of Plasma Therapy in treating COVID - 19 

Use of Plasma Therapy against COVID-19 has shown some positive results. Countries like the US, China, and more recently, India are using it as a measure to treat people. Convalescent plasma is an experimental procedure for Covid-19 patients.

What are the antibodies?

Antibodies are one of the front-line immune response to an infection by a microbe. They are a particular type of protein secreted by immune cells called B lymphocytes when they encounter an invader, such as a novel coronavirus. The immune system designs antibodies that are highly specific to each invading pathogen. A particular antibody and its partner virus are made for each other.

How is it different from vaccination?

This therapy is akin to passive immunisation. When a vaccine is administered, the immune system produces the antibodies. Thus, at a later date, when that pathogen infects the vaccinated person, the immune system releases the antibodies and neutralizes the infection. Vaccination provides lifelong immunity.

In the case of passive antibody therapy, the effect lasts only up to the time the antibodies injected remain in the bloodstream. The protection given is temporary. The mother transfers antibodies through breast milk to an infant before the child could build her immunity(COLOSTRUM, the first milk is very rich in Antibodies).

Question 

1. Most of the volume of normal human blood is composed of:

1. haemoglobin
2. Plasma
3. White blood cells
4. Red blood cells

2. Which of the following is correct:

1. COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease
2. It is caused by a bacterial infection
3. It is originated in Wuhan city of China

Choose the correct options

1. a & b
2. a & c
3. Only a
4. All are correct

Answer in the comment box

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