NEW DELHI, – India may remove the Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy from its national health guidelines to treat the Covid-19 patients as “the treatment did not show benefit in reducing mortality among patients”.

The decision is being taken as a study conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed that the CP therapy did not help in reducing mortality or slow the progression of Covid-19, said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general of ICMR, at a media briefing here on Tuesday.

“We are discussing with the national task force on COVID-19 management and with the joint monitoring group that plasma therapy may be deleted from the national treatment guidelines on COVID,” he said.

ICMR, the apex medical research body, disclosed the findings of the study, which was conducted on 1210 patients in 39 hospitals from April 22 to July 14 across India to know the effectiveness of plasma therapy in treating the coronavirus infected patients with a view to reducing mortality rate.

Besides, Director of All India Institution of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told media recently that no clear mortality benefit of convalescent plasma therapy was found during a trial conducted among Covid-19 patients in hospitals.

During the trial, one group of patients was given CP therapy along with the standard supportive treatment while the other group only received standard treatment. The number of fatalities recorded in both the groups was equal and there was not much clinical improvement in the condition of patients, he said.