PANAJI: Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Saturday announced that the State will have its own plasma bank and will soon approach the Incdian Council for Medical Research for approvals.
Rane, addressing a press conference, said that the decision was reached considering the rise
in cases and also several death and other critical cases.
“Considering the rise in cases in our state, I had an interactive session with Dr Bandekar (Dean, GMC), Dr Anar, Dr Savio, Dr Wiesman and Dr Mallya to discuss Plasma therapy in the state. Under Plasma therapy, Plasma will be collected from people who have recovered from COVID-19 and will be used for treatment of critical COVID-19 patients,” Rane said.
He said the DHS will be writing to ICMR with proposal to conduct plasma banking and plasma therapy.
“We will also be hiring an MD and trained technicians on a contractual basis to run the Plasma transfusion medicine department,” he added.
Subsequently, he continued, an institutional expert committee will be formed to look into the technicality of the procedure and keep track of records from COVID hospital.
“Initially our aim is to store 1000 packets of plasma, for which we will be procuring two Blood Plasma Freezers. Patients between the age of 18 to 60 years can donate their plasma for COVID-19 patients,” he said.
He said “In our effort to reduce Covid-19 casualties, we are working persistently to ensure we leave no stone unturned in fighting this menace of #COVID19.”
