29 October,2020 11:15 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
The sand art created by artist Sudarsan Pattnaik urging people to donate plasma Pic/Twitter Sudarsan Pattnaik
A 57-year-old woman did fourth plasma donation in five months since the outbreak of COVID-19. The woman, identified as Sneha Joseph, is the executive director of Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri. She perhaps became the first person in the country to make four plasma donations.
Recently, doctors from BYL Nair Hospital made an urgent SOS call requesting Joseph to donate plasma. According to a report in Times of India, Joseph, whose blood group is AB+, is a universal plasma donor. Nair is one of the sites for the PLATINA trial that is studying the efficacy of plasma in treating critical patients.
"I was happy that my antibody levels were still high," said Joseph, who took 18 days to recover after testing positive for COVID-19 on May 13. Joseph donated plasma on July 25, August 11, September 9 and October 26.
Commending Joseph for donating plasma, Dr. Kusum Jashnani, head of pathology at Nair Hospital, said that only one other male doctor has donated plasma thrice. "It shows her antibodies lasted five months, although some depletion has begun," she said. Globally, studies are on to understand the life of antibodies.
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