Chandigarh: In order to ensure whether plasma therapy is effective in treating covid-19 patients, the premier Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has started a study to contemplate how long covid-19 antibodies can persist in recovered patients.
The study is an extension of the plasma therapy trial which has already been conducted at 39 hospitals across the country. The samples collected will be submitted to the National Institute of Virology, Pune so that specialists can study the effect of antibodies on the live viruses.
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The Print reports ICMR study was launched on 22nd of April and ICMR conducted a trial called PLACID where 464 COVID patients in 39 hospitals participated and it was concluded that plasma therapy might not be effective enough in reducing the covid-19 mortality rate.
However, before transfusing blood plasma from recovered patients, the presence of neutralizing antibodies has not been confirmed by the trail because a reliable test for Naturalizer antibodies was not available in India when the study was launched. Hence, India started contemplating removing plasma therapy from covid-19 cynical management guidelines.
However, now PGIMER has again launched a test to confirm the persistence of the antibodies in a recovered person. Pankaj Malhotra from the internal medicine department, PGIMER, and principal investigator of the study told Hindustan Times, "The study is important so we can find out for long a person is immune to the infection. So, as part of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) trials, we have also collected samples from 60% of the patients who were either donors or recipients of the plasma trials. The aim is to check whether antibodies fall or persist in patients who once surely developed them."
He further added "It will also have an impact on how the vaccine will provide safety. If antibodies persist for a long time, we can safely assume that it will have a long term impact. Also, since a huge population has recovered, it will be better for us to understand for how long they are immune," Malhotra added.