We may have not found a cure or vaccine for the deadly COVID-19 yet, but that doesn’t stop these Malaysians for helping in any way that they can.
12 recovered COVID-19 patients have come forward to donate their blood plasma to be used in treating COVID-19 patients.
Photo: Bernama
According to Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the former COVID-19 patients were given counselling and had to undergo tests for bacterial infection before their blood was taken.
“After the counselling, the Health Ministry will refer them to the National Blood Centre to take blood to conduct COVID-19 treatment studies using blood plasma,” he said
Bernama reports that when asked about the progress in treatment using the blood plasma of former COVID-19 patients to treat those are still positive for COVID019, he said that the study was still in its early stage and the ministry had yet to see the effectiveness of the treatment.
“It may take some time before the ministry can find strong evidence to use it. The ministry is studying the use of blood plasma by looking at the antibody content and so on,” he added.
Dr Noor Hisham also explained the progress in obtaining the rapid test kit evaluation by the Health Ministry.
“Today and tomorrow there are test kits (received) from South Korea. Hopefully, the evaluation will provide a high degree of accuracy to enable the ministry to use them.”
“What is important about the test kit is that the COVID-19 test can be performed within a short time frame. Maybe in an hour, maybe half an hour,” he added.
The Health Ministry has yet to decide on test kits that are portable and easy to use at clinics and point of care.
Well done to those in the frontlines, fighting to find a cure to this deadly virus!
By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya
