Islamabad: Pakistanis with COVID-19 threaten their lives and navigate a bleak black market to unload blood plasma transfusions, despite little medical evidence of the effectiveness of the remedy.
Convalescence plasma treatment, in which the antibody-rich component of a cured patient’s blood is transfused into a coronavirus victim, is gaining popularity in Pakistan amid widely spread claims of good fortune on social media.
Like other countries, Pakistan is conducting medical trials on treatment, which has shown promising symptoms but is proven.
But with long waiting times and dubious access, others are turning to the black market and personal clinics, where there is no guarantee about the protection or origin of the blood product.
“Everything was born of depression because everyone needs an answer to this consultation (coronavirus),” said Fareeha Irfan, a public fitness specialist.
“It’s easy to exploit other people who don’t know very well what’s going on in the clinical world. It’s very simple to coerce them.”
Pakistan reported 260,000 cases of coronavirus and some 5,500 deaths. With low rates, it is idea that the actual figure is significantly higher.
The Pakistan Hematology Society said plasma exaggeration had led the public, and even some fitness professionals, to cure it as a popular remedy for the virus.
“The use of convalescence plasma can lead to life-threatening transfusion reactions and transmissions of infections,” the company said.
Nawaz Murad, a lahore speaker, said doctors had begged him to arrange plasma treatment as a last-distancing attempt to save his father, who was deteriorating by COVID-19.
Frenzied, he went to Facebook, where he discovered a donor within hours.
To remedy everything quickly, the family circle did not do blood tests, leaving open the threat of infections such as hepatitis or HIV.
“Of course, it values the risk, there is still no other option to do the transfusion as soon as possible,” Murad said.
“It’s not a general situation, my circle of relatives is under immense stress.”
The donor provided his plasma for free, but Murad paid about $100 to a doctor to do the transfusion at home. Some personal clinics would rate up to $300 in the country.
Legal expert Oussama Malik said provincial and federal governments are “looking the other way” while unlicensed centers administer plasma treatment at the best prices.
“The seven (official) centres are enough to treat the largest number of desperate patients,” he said.
Murad’s father has recovered and his relatives stored him with the plasma remedy.
While plasma treatment has still been shown in the fight against coronavirus, small studies have shown that it is effective against other infectious diseases, adding Ebola and SARS.
Zoraiz Riaz Syed, who runs the former patient organization “Corona Recovered Warriors” on Facebook, said he helped more than 750 people join blood donors.
His organization “provides a central platform for all of Pakistan,” he said, adding that others trusted network members rather than the squeaky physical care system.
A senior fitness officer overseeing the government’s plasma clinical trials said it is “almost impossible” for the government to avoid unregulated transfusions.
Authorities are concerned about black market sales, he said, where traders promise to deliver a blood bag to critical patients for costs of up to $900.
Facebook organization Coronavirus expelled several members for attempting to sell their plasma, which is illegal in Pakistan, according to World Health Organization guidelines.
Pakistan’s ministry of fitness did not respond to requests for comment, however, the government established a hotline for those forced to pay for plasma to file a complaint.
Independent publisher Amal Chaudhry said her father’s plasma remedy with the help of a donor he discovered on Facebook had proven effective until now.
“All out of desperation, ” he said.
Now recovered, his father posted online that he was able to donate his plasma to other patients with the virus.
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