Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that initial results of plasma therapy trials conducted on four Covid-19 patients were encouraging with two of them recovering and likely to be discharged from hospital soon.

“Our efforts have been to stop deaths resulting from corona. So that if anyone gets infected should go to a hospital for treatment and go back home happy,” Kejriwal told the media, adding that they would be conducting more clinical trials of the therapy in the next few days.

Plasma therapy involves transfusion of plasma from those who have recovered from the coronavirus infection to severely ill patients.

“Around 10 days ago, the central government gave us permission to use plasma therapy trials on the most serious Covid-19 patients to see how it impacts them,” Kejriwal explained.

According to news reports, a 49-year-old patient was the first to be administered plasma as a part of the trial in Delhi. The patient, who was admitted to Max Super Speciality Hospital in Saket, was serious and had to be put on ventilator. The family found a donor and transfusion of plasma was done on April 14. Within four days, the patient was taken off the ventilator. Finally, he tested negative on April 20.

In Delhi a team of senior doctors at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Science (ILBS) that functions autonomously under the Delhi government is leading the trials.

ILBS director Shiv Kumar Sarin explained the benefits of the therapy and elaborated on the three phases of Covid-19.

The first, he said, was the viral phase when it enters the body and multiplies. The second phase is the pulmonary phase when the virus starts targeting the lungs which results in patients developing breathing difficulties.

The third phase is when cytokines – broad categories of proteins that mediate immune response — are released by the body to kill the virus. “Third phase is the stage when organs might fail and is the late stage. If the therapy is done in the second phase, we can fight the virus and save the organs as well,” said Sarin.

Sarin said plasma therapy was a promising alternative in the absence of any other therapy. Plasma therapy, he added, was used in SARS patients. But it has been around since 1901 when it was used against diptheria, a bacterial infection.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the therapy has been used “since the 1890s to combat diseases as wide-ranging as measles, SARS, Ebola, H1N1 flu, and polio holds the promise of keeping the virus (coronavirus) at bay until a vaccine can be developed.”

Sarin, however, pointed out that accessing plasma from those who have recovered was a challenge. In one instance, a young boy who was severely ill with a Covid-19 infection, could not be saved as the family struggled for more than a day to get plasma.

“Our entire team was depressed… This is not even like blood donation where you can’t give blood for three months. Here, the blood goes back into the body once the plasma is taken out,” he said.

Sarin said there were around two dozen patients who needed plasma. “All of you in Delhi should come forward. If we can get donations in the next two days, many patients can benefit,” he said.

A representative of Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic evangelist group that had till April 17 reported as many as 1,080 Covid-19 patients, said they were ready to help with plasma.

Jamaat member and advocate Mujeeb ur Rehman said, “Many Jamaat members, especially in the south, have come forward and donated plasma. But the situation is different in south India. The Jamaat is not seen in the way they are here (Delhi).”

Rehman said they would nevertheless contact the institute to arrange a donation drive.