Commissioner donates plasma after COVID-19 recovery

Jamaica News: Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson donated blood plasma at the Tony Thwaites Wing of the University Hospital of West Indies (UHWI) on Thursday, October 15.

According to the Major General Anderson, he decided to make the donation to help seriously ill patients recover from virus.

“It made sense to give some of my plasma to help someone who is seriously ill in the hospital,” he said.

Major General Anderson encouraged other people who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma to help others. He also commended the staff at the University Hospital for taking on this initiative to help others.

Dr. Nwokocha, consultant haematologist at the UHWI said that the process to donate plasma takes about two hours, from screening to donation. She went on further to say that the process is safe and all precautions are taken to ensure the safety and comfort of all donors. She encouraged persons who have recovered from COVID-19 to contact the hospital to arrange for plasma donation.

 “[The] persons who recovered from COVID, recovered because they developed antibodies to fight against COVID…usually in the plasma,” said Dr. Nwokocha.

She went on to say that the process is about transferring immunity from someone who has recovered from the virus and giving disease-fighting antibodies to a sick patient to help in the recovery process.

The plasma extracted from Major General Antony Anderson will be given to someone as soon as a match is found. Major General Anderson recently recovered from COVID-19 after testing positive in August.