Governor Sindh donates plasma for coronavirus treatment

KARACHI: Governor Sindh Imran Ismail has donated his plasma to help patients recover from the coronavirus.

The governor had recovered after being tested negative for coronavirus. He had tested positive for the virus on April 27 and again on May 8, but was a report on May 12 has declared him free from the virus.

Ismail, in a tweet, had said: “Alhamdulilah I have received my test results in which I have been tested negative for COVID19.” He has then announced to donate his blood plasma for coronavirus treatment to those in need.

Later, he shared his experiences during his 17-day isolation period and said the coronavirus is not a disease that essentially leads to death.

He had said the death ratio from coronavirus was very minimum and patients could defeat COVID-19 by adopting precautionary measures and SOPs in this regard.

Governor Sindh said that natural herbs were helpful in curing the symptoms of coronavirus. He said there was no authentic medicine or vaccine available for this virus. He thanked all persons who expressed their best wishes and prayed for his recovery.

Pakistan’s health authorities have allowed plasma therapy after conducting trials to treat COVID-19 patients in the country.

Dr Tahir Shamis, head of the National Institute of Blood Diseases, oversaw the clinical trials which targetted 350 patients who had recovered from the coronavirus.

Eight approved clinical trial facilities for convalescent plasma across Pakistan, have already begun the process of collecting the plasma of patients recovered from the coronavirus.

Passive immunization is not a new medical treatment and has been done for the last 125 years. The therapy was used to cure patients of diseases like SARS, Ebola and influenza in the recent past.

The method was being used at 1,500 hospitals in some 80 countries to cure coronavirus patients. A patient who has recovered from COVID-19 and has antibodies can donate plasma which can be used for two patients.

Pakistan is the worst-hit country from the virus, with the total number of cases reaching 89,249 with 1,838 deaths.