A doctor from the Philippine General Hospital recently composed a song to seek plasma donations from Filipinos who have recovered from COVID-19.
Dr. Jonas del Rosario, the spokesperson for PGH, composed a song titled “Mahirap Magka-COVID” to the tune of Apo Hiking Society’s hit song “Mahirap Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba.”
Del Rosario himself is battling against COVID-19. He tested positive for the virus late July, according to former special adviser to the National Task Force against COVID-19 Tony Leachon.
Through witty and relatable writing, Del Rosario also stressed in the song the importance of taking PCR tests and contact tracing procedures to prevent more transmissions of the highly contagious disease.
Several music videos were later released using Del Rosario’s composition.
The first one was aired at the end of the episode of GMA’s “24 Oras” last Friday, August 7. Kapuso TV anchors Mel Tiangco, Vicky Morales and Mike Enriquez also extended PGH’s appeal for plasma donations to their viewers.
Del Rosario, shared the video clip of it on his Facebook account and captioned it with: “How can you help if you have COVID-19? Your PLASMA can save somebody else’s life if you are a fully recovered qualified COVID-19 survivor!”
Another doctor, Armando Crisostomo, also shared his music video version featuring Del Rosario’s song on YouTube last Sunday.
On the same day, another YouTube user named Cocoy Silvestre also did a cover of the song on his channel. He likewise raised awareness on the minimum health protocols that should be followed to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
In PGH’s latest update on Monday, August 10, there are a total of 159 COVID-19 patients, 18 probable and 8 suspected cases, all of them are currently admitted in the hospital.
Meanwhile, as of August 11, the Department of Health logged 2,987 new COVID-19 cases which brought the tally up to 139,538. Of which, 68,794 are active cases.
Plasma for COVID-19 patients
Since last April, some patients who have recovered from COVID-19 were asked to donate their blood to be used for an age-old treatment called convalescent plasma therapy.
Plasma is the largest component of human blood that carries the white blood cells, red blood cells, and antibodies throughout the body. This can be extracted through blood donations.
Plasma therapy is a 19th-century approach that uses plasma from recovered patients of certain illnesses such as rabies, hepatitis B, polio, measles, influenza, Ebola and other pathogens.
In this case, despite still being experimental, scientists hoped to achieve to fight the deadly virus called SARS-CoV-2 using the human body’s own immune system.
Senators Sonny Angara and Miguel Zubiri were among the COVID-19 survivors who donated blood plasma.
Last June, PGH also sought for blood donations from COVID-19 survivors in the Visayas region, which previously emerged as a new COVID-19 hotspot due to the surge of confirmed cases.