Assam rolls out red carpet for blood plasma donors

When doctors in a flood-ravaged Indian state urgently sought plasma of a particular blood type for a COVID-19 patient this month, health officials sent a boat for a marooned donor who had recovered from the disease weeks ago.

With coronavirus cases surging in the northeastern state of Assam and critical medicines running low, local authorities are rolling out the red carpet for now-cured patients - all for their blood plasma believed to be rich in virus antibody, although research on its efficacy has not been conclusive.

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Assam says that symptomatic patients who donate plasma four weeks after recovery will get preference in government jobs and housing. For example, a donor may get extra marks if he or she is tied in any test or interview for a job.

It is also offering to cover travel and other expenses for donors from outside the state, and has been making its frontline workers scour the state - sometimes wading through flood waters - to bring willing participants to plasma donation centres.

Plasma from a previously infected person can be used to treat up to two moderately ill patients, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. Without timely treatment, such patients' condition can potentially worsen, further straining the limited pool for medicines.

"We have seen that if you give plasma between moderate and critical stage, the results are very, very good," he said.

Assam, where floods have so far killed around 100 people and affected roughly 3 million, is predicting coronavirus infections will peak in mid-September. It has so far reported more than 32,000 cases with 79 deaths.