KARACHI: Just a week after the Sindh government allowed three hospitals in the province to carry out clinical trials of passive immunisation process for the treatment of coronavirus-affected people, all three facilities in the province on Thursday started the process — the much-awaited treatment for Covid-19 patients.

Consultant haematologist and transplant physician Dr Tahir Shamsi said all three hospitals in Sindh and two in other parts of the country had formally started the trials.

Dr Shamsi had proposed the treatment of coronavirus patients through passive immunisation and sought government approval to infuse Covid-19 patients with blood plasma of those who had recovered from the illness in a bid to save lives of coronavirus patients.

The Sindh health department allowed Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, the National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) and Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad for the trials.

Dr Shamsi said the successful trial would prove a milestone in treatment of a large number of people.

Apart from hospitals in Sindh, he said trials of the same process were also being conducted at the University of Health Sciences, Lahore.

The federal government in the first week of April approved clinical trials of the plasma therapy.

This treatment was actually proposed by Dr Tahir Shamsi of the NIBD, who sought government approval to infuse Covid-19 patients with blood plasma of those who have recovered from the illness in a bid to save lives of coronavirus patients.

“The Clinical Study Committee (CSC) of Drap [Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan] allowed clinical trials of convalescent plasma for the purpose of passive immunisation during the Covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan,” said a Drap statement last month while announcing permission for the clinical trial. “The application was submitted by Professor Dr Tahir Shamsi, principal investigator and chairman of the National Institute of Blood Diseases and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Karachi.

In this study, convalescent plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients will be injected into the bodies of moderate and severe patients for the purpose of passive immunity for the treatment and to prevent these patients from going on ventilators.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2020