New Delhi: India on Monday dropped convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) from its national clinical management protocol for Covid-19.
The decision comes a day after members of ICMR’s National Task Force suggested that the plasma therapy lacked effectiveness and was used inappropriately in several cases.
The task force members, in the meeting held on May 16, said they were not in favour of continuing plasma therapy as part of the clinical management guidelines for coronavirus patients.
The study findings showed that compared with usual care alone, high-titre convalescent plasma did not reduce 28-day mortality. “In patients hospitalised with Covid-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes,” the researchers said.
Earlier, according to the ICMR advisory, the convalescent plasma (off-label) was considered only when the following criteria were met: Early moderate disease (preferably within 7 days of symptom onset, no use after 7 days) and availability of high titre donor plasma (Signal to cut-off ratio (S/O) >3.5 or equivalent depending on the test kit being used).
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