Plasma from Covid-19 survivors can help treat infected patients

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) says blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients can help treat infected patients, but the problem is most of the survivors avoid donating blood.

However, a Pajhwok Afghan News survey shows over 98 percent of recovered patients say they are ready to donate blood to other patients, but some people say only a limited number of such people donate their blood.

The virus first emerged in Wuhan province of China in November in 2019 but it rapidly spread to many other countries. According to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), it has recorded 45,963 cases of Covid19, 1,752 deaths and 36,644 recoveries since its outbreak in Afghanistan.

The second wave of the virus began about two weeks back in Afghanistan. A survey conducted three months ago showed that around three million people have infected with the virus in Afghanistan.

Empiric therapy

Covid-19 has so far no an absolute treatment, but some experts say the blood plasma of those recovered and have developed antibodies against the virus could help in treatment of those infected.

Health professionals say people who have successfully recovered from the virus develop antibodies in blood plasma against it.

According to published information, experts are yet to explain for how long a person can resist a second contract of Covid19.

A research on people who contracted Covid19 shows that antibodies developed in first infection gradually weakens, but they remain relatively active from three to six months.

A German professor, Thomas Conrad in an interview with Deutsche Welle said that those with weak signs of Covid19, their bodies contained antibodies for a certain period of time.

“There are very limited people who lose antibodies after two or three months, most of people keep the antibodies for a longer time. We know this virus for around nine months, so we cannot predict if the antibodies remain active beyond two years,” he said.

Daud Altaf, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Afghanistan, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the organization understood the blood plasma of a recovered person as an empiric therapy and considered it a proper way for analyzing other clinical researches.

He said usage of the plasma of a recovered person for an infected person could be used for production of ‘hyperimmune globulin’ and clinical experiments also showed the process was effective for treatment of the virus.

“WHO is ready to keep relations with all its international partners so they obtain information about the research policies and processes on blood plasma of Covid-19 and then share it with others,” he said.

Dr. Hamidullah Seddiqi, in charge of anesthesia ward in civil hospital of northern Balkh province, said that he was also infected with Covid-19 and he received blood from his friend’s wife who had recovered from the disease.

“When I received the blood, I felt very healthy during the next 24 hours and was discharged in 48 hours and after two weeks when I tested, I was negative,” he said.

Masuma Jaafari, deputy spokesperson for MoPH, said that the blood plasma of recovered people was effective in treatment of infected Covid-19 patients in some countries including Afghanistan.

“The body of an infected person develops antibodies but when the patient is injected with the plasma of a recovered person, it empowers the immune system and help in rapid recovery of the patient,” she said.

However, she said the treatment method was not much common in Afghanistan as many people recovered from Covid-19 did not donate their blood to patients.

When asked why the ministry did not launch a campaign in this regard, Jaafari said that doctors would verbally encourage recovered people to donate their blood and the campaign was not launched as international research on the matter had not been concluded so far.

Survey:

After MoPH said that most Covid-19 survivors refuse to donate their blood, Pajhwok Afghan News conducted a survey on Facebook and asked people ‘If you are recovered from Covid-19, would you donate your blood to save infected people?’

Around 400 people responded to this survey with 394 of them said that they were ready to donate their blood to patients while six others said they would not do so.

Shukria Jalalzai, one of them said, “Sure, I donate my blood to an infected countryman.”

Ahmad Javid Amin, another participant of the survey, said, “I have not tested again, but I passed through the disease last Ramadan, I am in your service.”

“Thanks God, we have recovered (from Covid-19), I am ready, it is the duty of every Afghan to donate blood to others or help them,” Noor Rahman, another person said.

Adil Khostwal, said, “if anyone needs my blood, I will sacrifice it for him or her.”

However, some say recovered people avoid donating their blood.

Eng. Ahmad Farid, a resident of Kabul, said one of his relatives was infected with Covid-19 and doctors said he needed the blood of recovered people for treatment.

“We asked many of those recovered from the virus to donate their blood, but none was ready, finally a doctor from among our relatives said he was ready, but when his blood was tested in the hospital, doctors said his blood had no antibodies and he was still in recovering condition and the patient lost his life,” he said.

He said recovered people did not donate their blood because they believed they had already been weakened by the virus and it would make them worse if they donated blood to others.

However, Dr. Mohammad Alam Raziqi, an internal health professional in Ibn-e-Sina Hospital in Balkh province, said that giving blood did not affect a recovered person and doctors examine a person’s condition before taking blood from him or her.

He said that 500cc blood was usually taken from a person and then 150cc to 200cc of it, which contained antibodies, was injected to a patient.

Blood plasma cannot save a Covid-19 infected person

Masuma Jaafari, MoPH deputy spokesperson, said that a healthy person could not develop antibodies and the blood from a recovered person to a patient was not helpful in all cases as antibodies decreased with the passage of time.

Health experts say there is need for development of a vaccine for treatment of the virus.

According to WHO, efforts are on for creating a vaccine for the virus in many countries and in some countries, the research has reached clinical experiments.

Based on reports, around 62 million people are infected with the virus worldwide, of these around 1.4 million people lost their lives while 7.39 million others recovered.

This report has been produced by Pajhwok and financially supported by UNDP.

Mds/ma

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