Dharan, August 18 After Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, BP Koirala Institute of Health and Sciences, Dharan, has also started using plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The therapy was used to treat a local businessperson. He is the second patient to be treated with the use of plasma therapy in the country. According to BPKIHS’s Pulmonology and Critical Care Department Associate Professor Dibyaraj Mishra, the treatment was possible after a youth from Sundar Haraicha in Morang donated blood. “The plasma therapy that has been used for treatment of a COVID-19 infected person here last night is the first instance of such treatment outside the valley,” said Dr Mishra, adding that plasma therapy was used in the past for treatment of patients with other diseases though. Besides BPKIHS, 12 hospitals across the country have got the permission to treat COVID patients using plasma therapy. A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 19, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.