An 84-year-old COVID-19 infected man who was given monoclonal antibody therapy in Gurgaon was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday.
The antibody therapy is said to reduce the chance of hospitalisation by 70 per cent in patients with mild to moderate symptoms.
Mohabbat Singh was given a cocktail of Casirivimab and Imdevimab at the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon as part of the "single dose infusion-based treatment".
He was kept under observation by the hospital authorities and later went home.
An official on behalf of the hospital claimed it was Delhi-NCR's first case of monoclonal antibody therapy, reported The Indian Express.
In a statement, the hospital said, "The antibody combination of Casirivimab and Imdevimab, now available in India, is a cutting-edge treatment that will provide protection to COVID-19 positive patients with mild or moderate symptoms before they deteriorate further or require hospitalisation."
This treatment is approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The hospital also informed that this single-dose infusion-based treatment can be provided on an outpatient or on a daycare basis.
The monoclonal antibodies are artificially created in a lab and tailor-made to fight the disease they treat, hospital authorities said.
According to the doctors at the hospital, the therapy is most suited for "high-risk COVID-19 patients" who are within the first ten days of symptom onset and meet any of the listed criteria, such as age being 65 years or above.
The other criteria for this treatment also include obesity with body mass index (BMI) of more than 35; or type-1 or type-2 diabetes mellitus; or chronic kidney disease, including those on dialysis; or chronic liver disease; or currently receiving immunosuppressive treatment; or if aged above 55, having either heart disease, or hypertension, or chronic lung disease, the statement added.
However, the therapy is not recommended in patients who are hospitalised due to severe COVID-19, require oxygen therapy or those who even require an increase in baseline oxygen.
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