Kanika Kapoor offers to donate plasma for treating COVID-19 patients

Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor on Monday expressed her desire to donate her plasma for treating coronavirus patients, officials said.

She has given her blood sample for testing at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) here, they said.

"Singer Kanika Kapoor on Monday expressed her desire to KGMU doctors to donate plasma. After this, she was called and her blood sample was taken for testing. If everything is found appropriate in the report (of the blood test), she will be called on Monday evening or Tuesday to donate her plasma,” Tulika Chandra, Head of Department of Transfusion Medicine, KGMU told PTI.

"So far, three COVID-19 patients, who have recovered from the infection at the KGMU, have donated their plasma. This includes a resident doctor of KGMU Tauseef Khan, a female doctor from Canada (who was admitted here) and another patient,” she said.

Kapoor had tested positive for novel coronavirus on March 20.

She came under attack for negligence and not practising self-quarantine despite returning to the country from the UK amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement on Sunday, the singer said she is aware of "several versions of stories" about her diagnosis, but "negativity thrown at a person does not change the reality".

The singer clarified that she travelled to Lucknow to meet her family on March 11 and claimed there was "no screening setup for domestic flights".

On March 14 and 15, Kapoor said she attended a friend''s lunch and dinner and clarified "there was no party hosted by me and I was in absolute normal health."

However, on March 17 and 18, she developed symptoms and said she got herself tested on March 19.

"On March 20 when informed that my test was positive, I chose to go to the hospital. I was discharged after three negative tests and have since been at home for 21 days,” she added.

Meanwhile, a 58-year-old doctor became the first coronavirus patient at the KGMU here to receive plasma therapy as an experimental treatment for the disease on Monday, a hospital official said.

The doctor from Orai in Uttar Pradesh was administered the plasma donated by the woman doctor from Canada who was the first COVID-19 patient admitted to the KGMU and later recovered, Chandra said.

Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma (a blood component) from a cured COVID-19 patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient.

The blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 develops antibodies to battle against the virus.

The idea behind the therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma.

Once the blood plasma of the recovered patient is infused with that of the second patient, the antibodies start fighting against coronavirus in the second person's body.

The process of donating plasma is similar to that of donating blood and takes about an hour.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recently asked the state's medical authorities to promote plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients after examining its efficacy.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recently allowed states to start clinical trials of plasma therapy.

Many states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using it for treatment of coronavirus patients.

Several other countries including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.