As soon as the registration for Covid-19 vaccination for those between 18-45 years old opened up, the servers of the CoWIN website, UMANG app and Aarogya setu app crashed. A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in India as it reported 3.86 lakh new cases in the last 24 hours has led to a situation of desperate pleas for help and a rise in demand for hospital beds, oxygen and plasma.
In the last 24 hours, 2,97,540 Covid-19 patients in India recovered. With a surge in demand for plasma that has antibodies to help a Covid-19 patient fight the pathogen and recover from the disease, many are wondering when exactly one can donate plasma.
With vaccination set to begin for all adults from May 1 in several states across the country, several social media posts requested people who have recovered from COVID-19 to first donate their blood so that their plasma that has antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 can be used to help COVID-19 patients.
Although the PLACID trials conducted in India have shown that convalescent plasma therapy is not really useful in decreasing the severity of COVID-19, hospitals continue to prescribe convalescent plasma therapy for patients on oxygen as well as ventilators. The demand for plasma reveals that many doctors have been prescribing plasma.
But, if plasma is being prescribed and there's a need for plasma, when can one donate it? How long should a person wait after they recover from COVID-19 before they can donate plasma? And, when can receive the vaccine? Several patients recovering from the infection are unaware as to when can they actually donate their blood to help or receive their first or second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
To get this clarified, BOOM spoke to Dr. Mohammed Shakeel Ahmed, Head, Emergency Department, Fortis Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, Navi Mumbai.
Plasma Donation
Dr. Ahmed emphasised that individuals recovering from COVID-19 need close to 6 weeks to be able to donate plasma as their body has created a sufficient number of antibodies to act against the virus.
BOOM also asked Dr. Ahmed as to why plasma is still a chosen recuperative therapy even when it has not shown effective results.
"I personally have not used plasma so far for any of my patients but the decision varies from clinician to clinician as well as the symptoms exhibited by the patient. If the clinician feels that their patient will need external antibodies from a recovered person to help them fight their infection, well we leave it to their discretion, " Dr. Ahmed explained.
Vaccination
India has distributed over 15.22 crore vaccine doses among health workers, frontline workers, and people above the age of 45 years of age. Over 62 lakh health workers, 67 lakh frontline workers, and 1.38 crore people above the age of 45 have been fully vaccinated so far.
The government now intends to allow states and private hospitals to begin vaccinating every person who is eligible to receive the vaccine and is above the age of 18. The registration will only be through COWIN and no walk-ins will be permitted.
While the vaccine should be immediately taken by those who are at risk, those who have been recently diagnosed in the second wave, doctors say, should wait it out.
"If you have just been diagnosed, wait 6 weeks after recovery to get vaccinated as the dead remnants of the virus are still prevalent in the body. The vaccine shots will boost the immunity of the people who have recovered and help form a better immune response if the person gets reinfected, " Dr. Ahmed explained.
Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS, Delhi in a press conference held on April 30, stated that the government believes that people who have fully recovered can take their vaccine in two weeks and most doctors will recommend that patients not wait longer than six weeks after recovery.