Wed 22 April 2020:
Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation here during the lockdown, on Tuesday appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people.
In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said he and some other members of the organisation are exercising self quarantine.
He said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19.
“Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine.
“It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment,” he said.
On Monday, he had urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramzan.
Attendees of Tablighi Jamaat in Tamil Nadu, who have been successfully recovered and have now tested negative for the novel coronavirus come forward and donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The main reason, according to an Indian Express report, they said, apart from helping the critically ill patients to recover from COVID-19, was to counter the ‘baseless accusations’ hurled against them that Tablighi Jamaatis were responsible for the spread of the virus following the religious congregation of the sect held at Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month.
“As soon as I got discharged, I met the district administration officials and the dean of the hospital and told them that they may contact me anytime if they needed me to donate my plasma,” Abbas told Express.
“It has only been one day since I was discharged but I’ve already spoken to others (from the Jamaat) who have recovered and they were all ready to donate,” he added.
Plasma therapy
Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients.
In this therapy, the antibodies of a person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a sick person (having the virus) to help boost the person’s immune system.
The recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19.
Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person.
The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour.
Several countries around the world including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.
In India, several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using Plasma Therapy for the corona-infected patients.
