Birgunj's Narayani Hospital starts plasma therapy to treat COVID patients

BIRGUNJ: The Narayani Hospital based in Birgunj of Parsa district has started treating the COVID-19 patients using plasma therapy method.

The hospital treated a COVID-19 patient with plasma therapy for the first time on Sunday. According to doctors, the health condition of the patient is in progress.

With the initiative taken from civil society stakeholders, Narayani Hospital started the treatment following standard protocol after signing an agreement with Blood Circulation Centre I  Birgunj to establish a plasma bank, on Saturday.

Plasma therapy treatment has been 'launched' as per the standard set by the National Health Research Council (NHRC), according to the hospital's medical superintendent Sanjay Thakur.

The patient who underwent the treatment of COVID-19 has been identified as a 35-year-old man of Sundarpur in Chkraghatta Rural Municipality-3 in Sarlahi district.

The infected person was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after suffering from some health issues. The PCR test of his swab specimen collected on Sunday came out positive for the respiratory disease.

The patient had difficulty in breathing and also had a high fever for about a week before he was admitted to the hospital.

"We had to introduce plasma therapy treatment since the infection had advanced and complications had surfaced" spokesperson at the hospital, Dr Atulesh Kumar Chaurasiya said.

The treatment was carried out at around 10:00 pm and completed in two hours, he said and added, "The health condition of the patient is in progress."

A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 1, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.