Now, a website to match plasma donors to COVID-19 patients

Karina Thakrar and Dr Neil Pinto who created the site

An online platform launched on Monday aims to donors connect with patients in various parts of the country, in order to facilitate plasma therapy, that can help in the recovery of critical COVID-19 patients. The initiative, titled Pint Network, has registered around 65 donors.

The website was created by 23-year-old Dr Neil Pinto and 22-year-old Karina Thakrar. "People are now gradually opening up to the idea that once they are COVID-19 free, they can help others suffering from the disease. To deal with the pandemic, we are building a network of plasma donors across India for the recovery of COVID-19 patients. A pint of plasma can save up to two lives," Thakrar said.

Hospitals to be roped in
Describing the process, Thakrar said that an algorithm is able to match donors with patients based on the criteria prescribed in the guidelines in real time. "Once there is a match, the donor's details are passed on to the patient, after which they can connect and take the process forward. Donors can then go to the hospital where the patient is admitted and donate plasma," said Thakrar. She added that a day after the website was launched, 36 donors and 24 patients from Mumbai have registered, and there were two matches for patients in private hospitals.

Donors and patients can both submit their details on two forms on the website that include details about their blood group, details of any ailments and a confirmation of being a COVID-19 patient. Dr Pinto said that they are in talks with a few hospitals and hope to rope in both government and private hospitals as part of the initiative. "Convalescent plasma from recovered COVID patients has been known to help other patients with severe symptoms. We were getting a lot of messages from people who were looking for plasma and it would take them 4-5 days to find it. With the help of this platform, we hope to reduce that time to 1-2 days," said Dr Pinto.

Questions on Instagram
Thakrar said that apart from Mumbai, they have received a positive response from other metro cities as well including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Since there isn't a whole lot of information available on plasma therapy which is still in an experimental phase in India, Thakrar said that they have an account on Instagram for people who have queries regarding plasma therapy. Dr Pinto added that once the donor is matched with the patient, the hospital carries out the necessary measures to verify the details provided by the donor.

36
No. of donors who registered a day after the site's launch

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