Plasma therapy for COVID-19 illegal and can be life threatening, experiments on: Govt

NEW DELHI: The Union government on Tuesday said the plasma therapy is still in experimental stage and till it is approved no one should use it for the treatment of coronavirus patients, it can be harmful to patient and is illegal.

Health ministry joint secretary Lav Aggarwal today said the plasma therapy is being experimented, and there is no evidence that this could be used as a treatment.

"Plasma therapy is in experimental stage but not enough evidence now to claim it can be used as treatment for COVID-19 patients," Lav Aggarwal said.

The health joint secretary said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for medical research, has launched a national level study to understand the effectiveness of this therapy.

Until ICMR concludes its study and a robust scientific proof is available, plasma therapy should be used only for research or trial purpose, he added.

“It's still in experimental stage, right now even ICMR is doing it as an experiment to identify and do additional understanding of this therapy. Till it is approved no one should use it, it'll be harmful to patient and illegal," Lav Aggarwal said.

If plasma therapy is not used in proper manner under proper guideline then it can also cause life threatening complications, Lav Aggarwal added.