DailyOh! Why govt dropped plasma therapy for Covid-19, to the high-level drama in Bengal

Today began on the note of mixed feelings. While on the one hand, the country saw a significant decline in the daily Covid-19 cases, it came with a sharp rise in deaths due to the infection. India's total new caseload was at 2,63,533 over the 24 hours ending this morning — a shade lesser than yesterday’s at 2,81,386 fresh cases. However, the death toll is at a record 4,329.

The top five states order now stands thus: Karnataka (38,603 cases), Tamil Nadu (33,075 cases), Maharashtra (26,616 cases), Kerala (21,402 cases) and West Bengal (19,003 cases).

We will come back to Covid, but the news on the cyclone first. Cyclone Tauktae has wreaked havoc in Mumbai. A barge carrying 273 personnel was caught in the winds and rain and sank. The Indian Navy has managed to rescue 177 so far and the search for 96 remaining continues.

With the second wave of Covid-19 hitting the country with unparalleled rage, lives have been devastated everywhere. The country has lost many luminaries to the dreaded virus, the latest being Dr KK Aggarwal, Padma Shri awardee and former national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), who passed away late last night. The 62-year-old cardiologist was battling Covid for many days and was on ventilator support for the past week at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The head of Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI), Dr Aggarwal launched Health Patrol India — an online platform for fact-checking and busting fake health news on the internet and social media in the wake of the pandemic. He brought together a team of specialists from Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Infectious Diseases, Diabetes and Endocrinology for verifying and busting the fake news.

But that apart, Dr Aggarwal also had a light side to him. As recently as in January this year, Dr Aggarwal faced his wife’s ire when he was live on social media sharing Covid-related information.

Later, Dr Aggarwal shared a statement saying that he was happy that people enjoyed a "moment of levity" at his expense and urged them to get vaccinated.

It is not just the loss of Dr Aggarwal, which is paramount in itself, but the deaths of other doctors as well. In the second wave of Covid-19, India has lost 269 doctors so far, while another 748 had died in the first wave itself. So far, over 1,000 doctors in the country have succumbed to the virus.

While the government is trying to get the vaccination drive going, the treatment protocol for Covid-19 has changed. A government-appointed task force has removed the use of convalescent plasma therapy for treating adult Covid-19 patients. It has been removed even as an 'off label’ treatment. To understand why plasma therapy has been struck out, we need to understand what plasma is, first.

Our Word Of The Day, plasma, is the largest part of your blood. When separated from the rest of the blood, plasma is a light yellow liquid, carrying water, salts, enzymes, nutrients, hormones and proteins. It comes from the Ancient Greek word plássō which means “to form”. So plasma literally forms the blood, making up more than half (55 per cent) of its overall content.

While plasma therapy has been negated as a treatment for Covid-19, has it treated any other disease in the past? Turns out it has. From measles to smallpox, to Spanish Flu, plasma therapy has been a prescribed vaccination and treatment protocol. It has in fact saved the lives of millions of children way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, by curing diphtheria.

In fact, it has bagged a Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901, first-ever in that category, was awarded to Emil Adolf von Behring "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths."

So plasma therapy is not as useless as you might be tempted to think. Just that it is not working for Covid-19. Why is that? Well, a variety of reasons, but the main one being that scientists suggest that the erratic and imprudent use of plasma therapy might have contributed towards the emergence of different variants of SARS-CoV-2, which had “lower susceptibility to neutralising antibodies”. We wonder what will now happen to the many ‘plasma banks’ that were set up by various state governments. Along the lines, we also wonder what might ACTUALLY work as a treatment for the infection.

While treatment for Covid is still up for guesses, the treatment for mucormycosis, or black fungus — an antifungal drug known as 'Amphotericin B' — has been in great demand lately. And this is because the recent weeks have seen a sharp increase in cases of mucormycosis. This rare infection, found in patients recovering from Covid, has already taken a toll on Maharashtra, where 52 people have died due to mucormycosis so far. All of them had survived the virus but succumbed to the fungus.

But it is not just people with viral or fungal (or bacterial infections) who are thronging hospitals. Three of the four Bengal leaders who were arrested on Monday in the Narada sting case — TMC MLA Madan Mitra, former minister Sovan Chatterjee, Cabinet minister Subrata Mukherjee — were admitted to the SSKM Hospital’s Woodburn Ward last night.

They were arrested on Monday along with Cabinet minister Firhad Hakim, who is the only one among the four currently lodged in Presidency Correctional Home.

Monday saw high-level drama. CBI raided their houses early in the morning, arrested them by noon, a CBI court granted them bail in the evening, CBI went to Calcutta High Court and the HC then ordered a stay on the bail order, sending them to jail by midnight — all on Monday. Add to that, CM Mamata Banerjee spending six hours in the CBI office and TMC workers pelting stones on Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s residence, and you have a full-fledged Tollywood masala flick ready. The Calcutta High Court will now hear the matter on May 19, that is, tomorrow.

Tollywood to Hollywood, from where we bring you the 1957-classic 12 Angry Men. Our recommendation today is a courtroom drama that went on to become an iconic film of all times.

Watch 12 Angry Men on Amazon Prime Video, because, well there is nothing much to do anyway, with the increasing restrictions on movements and gatherings, curfews and lockdowns. But remember that all these are for your own safety. So adhere to them and stay safe.

We will meet you tomorrow.

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