While our country has seen at least sixty lakh COVID-19 survivors in the past seven months that we as a nation have been fighting against this unprecedented virus, COVID-19 plasma donors though high in demand have been extremely less. Due to this plight, doctors have been welcoming multiple donors who are individuals who have donated their plasma more than once. Research showed that of the 370 COVID survivors from the Health Care Global (HCG) Hospital, at least 55% had high antibodies for a period of at least three months. The rest 40% had some antibodies while 5% showed a complete lack of the same.
Due to such a serious lack of COVID-19 plasma donors, twenty-three-year-old Shahid Aboobakkar has decided to donate his plasma for the fifth time. While the concept of people being multiple donors is not entirely new, most people prefer to make only up to three donations. Aboobakkar is a hardware store owner from Mangalore and was first diagnosed with having caught the virus on July 2, 2020 through random testing that was occurring in his neighbourhood. At that time, he had just gotten back from Goa, where he had been stranded during the nation-wide lockdown enforced by the Centre. He recalled how upon contracting the virus he had lost his sense of taste and smell all the while having also a slight cold. He was however discharged after twenty-one days of being under treatment.
It was at this juncture that he says, he noticed a sort of frenzy in people trying to procure COVID-19 antibody plasma. He recalls noticing how the supplies were extremely limited. Therefore, he decided to do his part and donate his plasma. In order to do this, he travelled all the way to Bengaluru to the HCG Hospital on the 17th of August. During that time, the HCG Hospital was one of the few places in the state that was accepting plasma donations. Till date, he has made three more donations since then and is now gearing up to make his fifth donation within the next 11 days.
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