Geneva: The World Health Organization has said that the use of plasma of people who have become diseased for the treatment of coronavirus infection is still being seen as a ‘practical’ therapy. And its initial results have shown that it is still ‘indecisive’.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization, said that in the last century, plasma of people recovering from the disease was used to treat various infectious diseases and the result was mixed. Swaminathan said that the World Health Organization still considers plasma therapy to be experimental, and should be evaluated continuously.
Soumya said that this treatment is difficult to standardize as different levels of antibodies are made in people and plasma is to be taken only from those who have been cured of the disease. He said that there have been small-scale studies and they have found low level of evidence. Dr. Bruce Alward, Senior Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, said that plasma therapy can have many side effects, ranging from mild fever and cold to severe lung disease.
