CEBU, Philippines — As COVID-19 continues to be a public health problem, the Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 together with the Regional Health Service 7 held their second Makatao Malasakit Blood Plasma Donor Program last Friday, in response to the call to donate blood and save lives.
About 85 non-uniformed personnel and different PNP-7 units, who are all COVID-19 survivors, participated in the blood donation drive.
"Your gesture of donating blood is a selfless act in saving other people's lives. The feat in overcoming COVID-19 will help save those who are badly hit by the deadly disease," said PRO-7 Director Albert Ignatius Ferro.
The first bloodletting activity happened last July 17, where 40 PNP personnel who recovered from COVID-19 donated their blood plasma.
With the absence of a vaccine, one of the current trends in medical management is convalescent plasma therapy. This is a treatment that uses the antibodies of coronavirus survivors to boost the immune systems of the critically ill.
Doctor Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Program of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the use of convalescent plasma transfusion is a valid approach in treating infectious diseases as demonstrated in previous outbreaks such as the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, 2003 SARS-CoV-1 epidemic, and the 2012 MERS-CoV epidemic.
In a press conference in Geneva last February, he explained that through the transfusion, “you're giving (the patients) a boost of antibodies to hopefully get them through the very difficult phase.”
Truly, this is concrete proof that police officers save lives not only in crime prevention, crime busting, peace keeping but as well as with health programs of the government in fighting against COVID-19, Ferro said.
PRO-7 is looking forward to more plasma donors that will help extend and save the lives of COVID-19 patients in Central Visayas. GAN (FREEMAN)