Till the first week of January, donations of nearly 700 packets of plasma had been received from those who had recovered from COVID-19, and since the outbreak of the disease, about 720 patients had been cured through plasma therapy, said President of the Committee of Plasma Therapy, Hematologist, Prof. Dr Ye Mya.
Plasma samples were previously collected only at Waybaghi Hospital. When the need for it was demanding it was published in newspapers and in the media. Talks were given on radio. It was on Facebook. A lot of interviews were given. When it was collected in Waybaghi it was done manually. At that time we could not use machines. Later machines to extract plasma were used. Mainly it was done manually. Later when the demand became high, and there were more hospitals, a separate room was established in the medical research department. Extracting plasma from a donor by machine we can obtain between 400 to 600 CC of plasma. A total there is only 200 CC in each packet, and so from each donor three packets are extracted. That is very effective. The donor can donate again after two to three weeks. It can be done three times, so one donor can give a lot if extracted with a machine. Till the first week of Jan. we have collected nearly 700 packets from plasma donors. That is very encouraging. From 700 donors we took two packets from some. From some three packets were extracted. Till the first week of Jan. 720 patients had been cured using plasma, said Dr. Ye Mya.
"When curing severe COVID-19 patients by Plasma Therapy it is only effective within two weeks after being infected, and it is less effective after the third week, '' said Dr Ye Mya.
In the first week after being affected by COVID-19 nothing much happens. There is a little fever. There us a little cough. That is the first week. In the second the patient starts to feel tired. Just feeling tired. The patient will cough and have fever. The problem starts after 10 days. The patient will feel very tired to the extent of being sent to ICU. The reason is the patient can't breathe well.
Oxygen generators have to be used. In the third week the heart is affected . The kidney gets affected. Other diseases come in. Mostly the patient dies within the third week. It doesn't go beyond 20 days. In the third week the disease becomes very severe. Kidneys are affected. Sometimes the liver is affected. Tge heart is affected. Other germs get in a d the entire body is affected. Now about 80% of the patients have a little fever in the first week. They lose the sense of smell and recover. Care has to be taken during the second week. It is not good in the third week ", said Dr Ye Mya.
Although in other countries COVID-19 patients are cured with Plasma Therapy in spite of dissimilarity blood group, in Myanmar only those of the same blood group are cured by Plasma Therapy to minimize danger.
The Ministry of Health and Sports requests for plasma donors to cure severe COVID-19 patients by Plasma Therapy.
At present with the use of plasma extracting machines it is possible to extract between 400 CC and 600 CC from a donor and that can be used for two to three patients. As the red blood cells are infused back to the donor with the machine the donor does not lose his strength.
