New Delhi: Scientists have been asked to develop a vaccine for the 2019 novel coronavirus that has killed at least 107 people in China. Vaccines, as we know, play a vital role in reducing the risk of several infections. However, there’s currently no vaccine available for the 2019-nCoV that has been identified as ‘high risk’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Experts have said that the novel coronavirus can be spread among people and that a person with the virus could be infectious to others before they know they have been infected. As the virus originated in Wuhan city of China spreads to various cities across China and abroad, scientists have begun their work on a vaccine to tackle the highly contagious respiratory disease that has no cure or specific treatment at the moment.
Vaccines for the novel coronavirus, nCoV-2019
On January 26, 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced to start developing a vaccine for the new coronavirus. In a tweet, the Global Times, China’s national English language newspaper, said a vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus could be developed within a month as the CDC of Zhejiang Province isolated a virus of high titer, which may help in the treatment and prevent of the disease.
Expert said a vaccine for the 2019 novel #coronavirus will be developed in one month at the earliest as the Center for Disease Control of #Zhejiang Province isolated a virus of high titers on Friday, which will help in the prevention and treatment of the virus.
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Also, on January 23, 2020, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced that it will fund three programmes to develop vaccines against the 2019-nCoV.
“The nCoV-2019 vaccine development efforts will build on existing partnerships with Inovio (Nasdaq: INO) and The University of Queensland (located in Brisbane, Australia). In addition, CEPI today announces a new partnership with Moderna, Inc., (Nasdaq: MRNA) and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” said a release in CEPI’s official website.
The programmes will hold rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as a new partnership. It aims to advance vaccines for the novel coronavirus into clinical testing as quickly as possible.
“Given the rapid global spread of the nCoV-2019 virus the world needs to act quickly and in unity to tackle this disease. Our intention with this work is to leverage our work on the MERS coronavirus and rapid response platforms to speed up vaccine development. There are no guarantees of success, but we hope this work could provide a significant and important step forward in developing a vaccine for this disease. Our aspiration with these technologies is to bring a new pathogen from gene sequence to clinical testing in 16 weeks - which is significantly shorter than where we are now,” said Richard Hatchett CEO of CEPI.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Beijing confirmed that two HIV drugs are being used to treat patients infected with the Wuhan Coronavirus. While researchers are yet to find a vaccine to protect against this family of viruses, including the new coronavirus, awareness and taking preventive measures recommended by WHO and other health agencies remain the key.
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