Blood plasma from developing countries may help developed world: researcher

ABBOTTABAD: The present Covid-19 might be the second exposure to underdeveloped countries including Pakistan and blood plasma from the underdeveloped world might be a solution to contain the virus in the developed world, claimed a medical researcher here on Sunday.

“The immense response and the resistance shown by the people of Pakistan against the present virus is a paradoxical behaviour of the immune response with limited mortalities so far. Whenever such a pathogen enters into the body, immunoglobulin is produced against it,” said Dr Ayub Jadoon, assistant professor, Immunology and Microbiology at Abbottabad University of Science & Technology (AUST). He said that on the second exposure, the antibodies of the first exposure or the memory B cells are already present in the persons and these defend the body against the newly coming same or related virus. He stated that in underdeveloped world, there is no proper system of diagnosis and even the diagnostic kits are not available. The mutation in the viruses remains unnoticed and taken as influenza or common cold with the symptoms of flu, cough, pyrexia and difficult respiration, he stated. Dr Ayub Jadoon, who is a PhD scholar and registrar in AUST, pointed out that there can be mortalities as well due to severe problems like pneumonia, which is not considered to be the cause of the coronavirus and usually the deaths are considered as resulting from pneumonia, heart attacks or septicemia.Nobody bothers to get to know the cause of the death, he claimed, while stressing the need for further investigation.“Coronaviruses are not new to the scene. These are usually present in animals and birds. For example, feline coronaviruses exist in cats and canine coronaviruses in dogs, but normally these viruses from the animals and the birds are not able to cause any diseases in human being due to the absence of the receptors. There is always a chance of the mutation in these viruses and after mutation the new strain is able to cause the disease in the human beings,” he opined. He said that when the people are exposed to these newly mutated strains, the immune system or the body puts a resistance against it and innate and specific immune response are activated to neutralize or to kill the virus. “In addition, the antibodies remain in the blood of these individuals for quite some time and act as a self-made vaccine. Whenever there is a second exposure, then these prepared antibodies or the memory B cells are there to combat the infection,” he maintained. During his research work, Dr Ayub Jadoon has cited more than 15 sources of information.