Facility ready in just two days
NEWDELHI: Two days ago, the stateof-the-art convalescent plasma bank inaugurated at south Delhi’s Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) on Thursday was a store room.
The hospital worked swiftly to add 10 beds and apheresis machines -- which separates the blood components and collects plasma – and get approval from Delhi’s drug controller before Thursday’s inauguration.
This is India’s first plasma bank set up by the Delhi government to help Covid-19 patients in need of the therapy.
“The idea of setting up a bank was floated so that people do not have to keeping calling people randomly or reach out to various organisations in times of need. Once it was decided, all the approvals came through quickly. We already have a very well-established apheresis programme so it wasn’t a challenge for us to start the bank in just two days,” said Dr Meenu Bajpai, faculty-incharge of the department of transfusion medicine at ILBS.
All Covid-19 hospitals under the Delhi government will counsel patients at the time of discharge and get their consent to donate plasma after 14 days. A team will call those under home isolation to ask them to donate .
Convalescent plasma therapy uses a blood component called plasma, containing virus-fighting antibodies, from a person who has recovered from the infection. When given to a patient with Covid-19, it should help their immune system fight the virus.
Vinay Prakash, 29, a staff nurse from the endoscopy department of ILBS , got the infection and recovered without any symptoms on June 1. “My sample was collected along with other staff members as part of a routine screening and I tested positive. And now, I can save someone’s life,” said Prakash, who was among the donors on the first day.
The hospital said 10 people came to donate plasma on Thursday.
A reception area with the words ‘Delhi Plasma Bank’ greets people. There are two separate queues for donors and people in need of plasma. To reach the plasma bank, the recovered Covid-19 patients take the elevator to the second floor.
“This is a non-Covid hospital and we screen everyone coming in to ensure nobody carries the infection in. This should put the mind of people who have recovered from the infection at ease,” said Dr SK Sarin, director, ILBS.