Why ICMR dropped plasma therapy from COVID-19 management guidelines?
AIIMS/ICMR-COVID-19 National Task Force/Joint Monitoring Group, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India revised Clinical Guidance for Management of Adult #COVID19 Patients and dropped Convalescent plasma (Off label). pic.twitter.com/Dg1PG5bxGb
— ANI (@ANI) May 17, 2021
Answering WHY PLASMA THERAPY WAS DROPPED FROM COVID-19 CLINICAL MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES.
The Story So Far:
In April 2020 scientists around the world started talking about plasma therapy, to be precise, Convalescent Plasma(CP) Therapy’s use in COVID-19 patients. Initially, it was thought to be significantly effective against COVID-19 but it proved to be ineffective later on through a detailed study.
What was that study and how was it conducted?
In May 2020:
The Indian Council for Medical Research(ICMR) approved 38 hospitals across the country to participate in the study called PLACID
or in simple terms convalescent plasma(CP)therapy trails.
Around 450 patients were monitored. The study aimed at finding whether the plasma or more specifically, the serum that is filtered from blood could be used to treat moderate or severely sick COVID-19 patients.
In August-September months:
The ICMR released the results of the trials that were conducted in May-July months on around 450+ patients.
HOW THESE TRAILS WERE CONDUCTED?
The tests were conducted in two different batches by grouping the patients based on the care they received. In medical terms, “Best Standard of Care(SoC)” and only “SoC”. You might be knowing these terms if you’ve read my previous post. Anyways, ‘The Biotech People’ isn’t hesitant to explain again😊😊.
What is the 'Standard of care?
SoC can also be called ‘best practices’ which is a set of guidelines established by the medical fraternity. Here the only difference between ‘Best SoC’ and simply ‘SoC’ is the additional ‘CARE’ given to the severely affected patients.
Now you got it right?
235 patients received the plasma along with the best “standard of care” whereas 229 patients received only the “standard of care”. The report of the trial says there wasn't a significant difference in the condition of patients and also it didn't help save people who underwent this trial. But the authors of this study stated that the use of Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy appeared to alleviate shortness of breath and fatigue among patients and also correspond to “a higher negative conversion of viral RNA”.
Did any other research prove this?
An article recently published in the British Medical Journal ‘The Lancet’ supports the statement of ICMR.
In the study, 5795 patients received convalescent plasma plus usual care and 5763 patients received usual care alone in a randomized open-label study done in 177 National Health Service hospital organizations in the UK. According to the study, of the 11558 randomly assigned patients, 4128 were women, which means 36% of the patients were women and the mean age was 63.5 years (average age of the group). The study concludes by saying that there wasn't much difference in the condition of the patients in both groups (Patients who received plasma and patients who didn’t receive it).
Since the study was conducted in a colossal(large) number of patients, the findings are significant.
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| The numbers using a pie chart. |
Many studies in this regard were stopped due to various reasons, one was this large-scale study which was much more significant than any other.
What are the other reasons behind dropping plasma therapy from covid-19 management guidelines?
Many researchers doubt that plasma therapy could be one reason for the mutation of the covid-19 virus.
A condition called ‘serum sickness’ is also a matter to be considered. In the past, the use of plasma in snake bites and other diseases had shown ‘Serum Sickness’ in patients which is said to be an adverse form of allergy.
Taking in the ineffectiveness of this therapy and the after-effects of CP therapy the ICMR would have dropped Convalescent Plasma therapy from the COVID-19 treatment guidelines.
Check out the latest treatment guidelines by ICMR.
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