Akhil Ennamsetty, first Telugu to donate his plasma for trials

VISAKHAPATNAM: After the Indian Council of Medical Research approved convalescent

plasma

therapy trials to assess its effectiveness in treating Covid-19, Akhil Ennamsetty, a

Covid

survivor from

Warangal

became the first person from the Telugu states to donate plasma.


Speaking to TOI, Ennamsetty who is pursuing his PG in Human Rights Law from University of Edinburgh, Scotland, said, “I hope to save lives by donating my blood to treat other patients. I had consented to donate plasma on April 2. I thought that it was my call of duty and responsibility to contribute to the society during the pandemic.”


On being asked about the misconceptions about donating blood and stigma surrounding particpation in medical research, Ennamsetty said, “After donating plasma two days ago, I started calling other survivors requesting them to donate. However, I was appalled by their answers. Most of them were unwilling to help. There are still a lot of myths surrounding plasma donation, hence my goal is to dispel the myths and encourage people to donate their blood.”

The 24-year-old added, “Around 500 ml of plasma was collected from my blood at Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad. I have told doctors that I would volunteer for medical research on Covid-19.”

It takes around three hours for a person to donate his/her plasma. Before collection, a blood sample is taken for investigation to ensure that the plasma from it does not pose any risk to the recipient patient. Once it gets the green light, the donor’s blood is passed through a processor called apheresis machine, which separates the blood from plasma. While the plasma is collected in a bag, the remaining blood is redirected to the donor’s body.
An alumna of AMC, Dr Madhavi shares her insights:

Sharing insights about plasma therapy, Dr Madhavi Gorusu, hematologist and president of Connecticut Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, said, “Possible mechanism of action by which this passive antibody therapy would mediate protection is viral neutralisation. Other possible pathways are antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and/or phagocytosis.”

Dr. Madhavi Gorusu

Dr Madhavi, who is an alumnus of Andhra Medical College, said, in a recent discussion, it was pointed out that for all cases where convalescent serum administration is considered, a risk benefit assessment must be conducted to assess individual risk versus benefit.

The doctor, said, "SARS1 in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012 were epidemics when this treatment was used. The SARS1 epidemic was contained, but MERS became endemic in the Middle East and triggered a secondary major outbreak in South Korea.

In both outbreaks, the high mortality and absence of effective therapies led to the use of convalescent serum. Only few details are available from the epidemic in China and published studies involved small numbers of COVID-19 patients. The available information suggests that convalescent serum administration reduced viral load and was safe, although data is limited.

“For passive antibody therapy to be effective, enough antibody must be administered. When given to a susceptible person, this antibody will circulate in the blood, reach tissues, and provide protection against infection,” she said while speaking to TOI.

A comprehensive discussion of issues of convalescent plasma procurement, administration, infectious disease input through a webinar was recently organised by American Association of Physicians of Indian origin. Dr P V Sudhakar, Principal of Andhra Medical College (AMC) who participated in the webinar, said, “The designated plasma donation collections centre will ask donors to fill the questionnaire about diagnosis, symptoms recovery, time period etc.”