All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria on Wednesday said convalescent plasma therapy as a potential cure for coronavirus is still at ‘an experimental stage’ and there is a need for good clinical trials before it can be recommended for routine use of coronavirus patients.
He also said AIIMS is planning to conduct a clinical trial on the efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in COVID-19 patients.
Guleria also said that the institute is working with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Drug Controller General of India whose approvals are necessary for conduction of proper clinical trials.
He claimed that only some studies have shown convalescent plasma therapy to give some signs of improvement to COVID-19 patients.
“In very limited studies, globally, convalescent plasma as an adjunct to other supportive therapies and treatments has shown some benefit in the management of severe patients of COVID-19,” Guleria said.
The AIIMS director also claimed that plasma has to be first tested on whether it has sufficient antibodies and is safe and useful to be administered to a COVID-19 patient.
“Giving plasma from a recovered patient without testing whether it has enough antibody titer or not may cause more harm than good as it can cause transfusion-related reactions,” he said.
Guleria’s statement comes after a private hospital in Delhi claimed to have successfully cured a 49-year-old COVID-19 patient with plasma therapy.
The hospital had also discharged the man last week.