My plasma helps fight COVID-19
We have donated plasma the previous Saturday, sharing our findings and experience of plasma donation. The points discussed below might help clear doubts and resolve the paranoia related to plasma donation.
What is plasma donation?
It is like blood donation, however in 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 procedure is completely harmless and a well-hydrated donor does not experience any pain, sickness, or dizziness.
How does this help?
Plasma therapy can be very effective for moderate to severe patients. A few doctors suggest using plasma therapy as a supportive therapy in addition to Remdesivir injections. Antibodies against the coronavirus are not eternal, The decline in antibodies over time appears unrelated to the number of times someone donated blood plasma.
Steps followed?
The process starts with you visiting the donation centre, doing initial blood tests, filling out a questionnaire, and performing a physical exam. If all the results come affirmative, the blood bank gives you a slot to come for donation. For COVID treatment, up to 500 ml plasma is collected from a donor’s body and the process takes about an hour and 15 minutes to complete.
Who can donate?
- The first criterion of course is donor needs to be a COVID survivor who have spent more than 28 days after recovery.
- The person should have adequate antibodies in the blood.
- All male COVID survivors in the 18–55 age group can donate plasma.
- In India, women between the ages of 18–55 years can donate plasma only if they have never been pregnant.
- A COVID survivor who has received COVID-19 vaccination will not be able to donate plasma for 28 days from the date of vaccination.
The paranoia and the solution
- I’M AFRAID OF NEEDLES
The actual drawing process should cause very little, if any, discomfort. The finger prick during the preliminary testing process is usually the only slight discomfort encountered by a blood donor. - OTHERS ARE DONATING ENOUGH
This is wrong information, Dr. Rajendra Wable, Dean at YCM Hospital Pune, said “of over 1,53,000 Covid patients who have recovered in the last year, only 3,000 have come forward and donated their plasma.” - MY BLOOD TYPE IS NOT IN DEMAND
Blood banks have an exchange program in place, where you can donate your blood plasma, and in return blood banks provide the plasma as per the need of the patient. This program helps in reducing friction for finding the right blood group.
If your blood group is AB+ like me(ayush), doubly lucky: you can give your plasma to anyone, and you can also receive any type of blood without negative effects. - I’M AFRAID OF CATCHING COVID AGAIN
Fair paranoia, we were afraid too while we were deciding on donation. But we followed a few simple protocols, We visited the blood bank in the morning hours, The blood bank we visited was fairly neat and the staff was following social distancing. - THEY’LL TAKE TOO MUCH BLOOD AND I’LL FEEL WEAK
For COVID treatment, up to 500 ml plasma is collected from a donor’s body and a well-hydrated donor does not experience any pain, sickness, or dizziness.
We have donated once and will donate again if we are eligible. And we sincerely request every recovered person(if they’re eligible) to donate plasma. There may not be a guarantee it will save a life but if you don’t donate, there will certainly be a loss. Our doctors are working round the clock to save lives. This is the least we can do.
