Hyderabad: Kishan opens Rotary plasma bank

Hyderabad: "Plasma therapy is the only hope to tackle coronavirus until the vaccine is introduced," said Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy.

Speaking after inaugurating the first Rotary plasma bank in Telugu States at Challa Blood Bank, here, on Sunday, Kishan Reddy sounded a note of caution to the public on the occasion and said, "Your carelessness is your punishment and your alertness will be your protection." He lauded the efforts of the Rotary organisation and suggested that no one compromise on undergoing tests and the number must be constantly increased.

Further informing that Central government was helping Telangana in every possible way, he said, "We have so far supplied 14 lakh N-95 masks along with 2,35,000 PPE kits, 42,50,000 HCQ tablets and 1,400 ventilators to Telangana along with approving 16 govt and 24 private labs."

Pointing out corona becoming uncontrollable in five States, Telangana being one amongst them, Kishan Reddy reminded that Central teams visited Telangana thrice and had been monitoring the situation, giving necessary suggestions to the State government.

An initiative of Rotary Club of Hyderabad Deccan, the plasma bank is the need of the hour for Covid-19 treatment, said VVSN Raju, the president of the Rotary Club of Hyderabad Deccan.

Addressing the gathering, Chairman of the Rotary Challa Blood Bank, Sharath Choudhary said, "Our journey of setting up a plasma bank started when engineering graduates of Manipal approached us to have a website to promote plasma donation. We also observed that we must make plasma donation easy."

The plasma is made available for patients at an amount of Rs 10,500 for patients in private hospitals for those who can afford it and those who can't afford it, they will be provided free of cost, added Sharath Choudhary.

How to donate plasma in 15 mins

The initiative requires patients and donors to register at the www.plasmaforyou.org platform. Donors will be pre-screened for antibodies and other blood parameters from samples collected at home by the technicians and eligible donors are then requested to come to the blood bank or transport to the blood bank at a designated time, thus eliminating the worries of re-infection and the discomfort of waiting at hospitals. The process takes 15 minutes.