Doni Monardo Asks Anies To Contact 2,500 Healed COVID-19 Patients

Chair of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo (Photo: Doc of the Task Force)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo contacted the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan. Through a video conference, Doni said that his party asked Anies to contact thousands of recovered COVID-19 patients to have their blood plasma drawn.

"Last night there was also a vicon with the Governor of DKI, there were around 2,500 families who have recovered from COVID. It is hoped that they are willing to donate the plasma," Doni said in an online press conference broadcast on the Cabinet Secretariat YouTube account, Thursday, June 4.

Apart from Anies, Doni also contacted the Governor of East Java Khofifah Indah Parawansa to ask the same thing. Where in East Java there are 699 COVID-19 patients who have recovered.

"So all citizens of our community who have recovered are expected to be willing to donate their plasma to the Health Office," said Doni.

According to him, this blood plasma donor is a form of mutual cooperation in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. Given, blood plasma can help cure positive patients because until now no drug or vaccine has been found.

Later, the blood plasma of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 will be used as a therapeutic tool for those who are still sick.

This method of treatment, said Doni, has been recognized by a number of international institutions. "So the method of treatment that has been carried out by the Ministry of Health uses the plasma convalescent method," he explained.

"We continue to encourage our experts, our medical experts, and our health experts to have the capacity for this plasma therapy," added the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

Some time ago, Director of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology Amin Soebandrio explained that blood plasma that can help cure positive COVID-19 patients belongs to people who have recovered from the corona virus.

This blood plasma can be drawn from the body after 2 to 4 weeks of recovery. "Plasma contains antibodies which are very good for neutralizing the virus. It is hoped that this will help accelerate the healing of patients who are in severe condition" said Amin.

Actually, it does not mean that there are patients who do not have antibodies to fight the invading virus. It's just that, said Amin, the process of recognizing antibodies against antigens varies.

By using the patient's blood plasma to recover, it can trigger an increase in a person's antibodies and help the healing to be faster.

"We use antibodies that are already in the plasma of patients who have recovered to fight the virus in patients who are sick. Given that, waiting for the vaccine (discovery) is rather long," said Amin.