Telangana: Congress wants government to frame guidelines for plasma donation

Hyderabad: Congress on Thursday demanded the State government to formulate guidelines for plasma donations in Telangana.

TPCC treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy along with other Congress leaders met Health Minister Eatala Rajender and discussed the plasma therapy. Narayana Reddy assured the Health Minister that he would rope in nearly 100 Telugu doctors settled in UK, Spain, Italy and USA to coordinate in telemedicine for the Covid-19 patients in Telangana. He said those doctors have experience of handling thousands of Coronavirus cases in those countries.

Responding to his request, the Health Minister called the Director of Medical Education, Director of Public Health and other senior officials asking them to gather information from the Governments of Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha and other States on the steps taken by them to boost plasma therapy. He asked them to frame the guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) to encourage plasma therapy in the State.

The Health Minister appreciated the offer and asked DME Dr Ramesh Reddy, DoH Dr. Srinivasulu and OSD Dr. Gangadhar to improve upon the proposal by having a meeting with Naraayan Reddy and other colleagues.

Earlier in the day, Narayana Reddy formally launched the Telangana Plasma Donors Association (TPDA), an NGO, to create awareness among people who recovered from Covid-19 to donate their plasma to save other Covid-19 patients.

The logo of TPDA was unveiled at a press conference at Hyderabad Press Club on Thursday. The office-bearers of the Association were also named on the occasion. Gudur Narayana Reddy is the President, P. Rathore is named vice president, Satyanarayana Reddy will be secretary and A. Narender will be the treasurer.

Addressing a press conference later, Narayana Reddy said that the initiative was taken to provide timely and much needed aid to the critical patients of Covid-19. He said, "This is purely to serve the patients without any discrimination and without indulging into any kind of politics. Covid patients are in urgent and inevitable need of Plasma today," he said.

He said with over 60% recovery rate, it was not difficult to convince recovered patients to donate their plasma to save 2% critically ill patients. However, this could not be done unless the State government frames Standard Operating Procedure.