Covid Plasma- Is it easily available?

Lately there is increased demand for Plasma donors to treat critically ill Corona patients. Some patients have recovered after plasma treatment and this has given new hope for those in distress.

However there is scarce availability for this potentially life saving resource. Plasma for Covid treatment is extracted from a Corona recovered patient. They need to wait for 3 weeks after recovery before they can donate plasma. And a corona recovered patient can only donate twice. Each time 400 ml is collected from the donor. A patient needing treatment needs 200 ml of plasma. So a corona recovered patient can help, at a max, 4 patients. Recovery ratio is about 80%. So, out of 100, if 80 are recovered and 20 people need plasma, and if only one person out of 80 donates plasma, only 4 patients can be saved. On a percentage basis, only 20% people may be lucky enough to be able to procure a plasma donor. It would be extremely difficult to find a plasma donor with such low probability.

We know not many people donate blood even during normal times. So, its not surprising to see people not willing to donate after recovering from Covid.

In a hugely populated city like Vizag, Red cross contacted 100 Covid recovery patients out of which only 3 people agreed to donate. Finally one person showed up! A city like Vizag currently has only 6 plasma extracting machines. However even those 6 machines are not busy because very few people are coming forward to donate after Covid recovery.

Celebrities like Bahubali Director Rajamouli who has recovered from covid are encouraging patients to donate. However less than 1% are coming forward to donate.

It’ll be extremely helpful if young recovered patients can come forward to donate after recovery! Hope there will be increased awareness and more people contribute towards plasma donation.

Sarve Janah Sukhinobhavanthu!