Advances in global research to find a vaccine against covid-19

Since the start of the pandemic in late 2019 in China and then its spread in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and now in Africa, researchers around the world have been mobilizing to find a treatment but also a vaccine.

On December 31, 2019, the WHO alerted to cases of pneumonia in China in Hubei province, which was confirmed a week later by the Chinese authorities who revealed a new virus from the coronavirus family, temporarily baptized: 2019-nCoV then definitively COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2.

On March 16, the WHO unveiled an alarmist assessment (see table below) without counting people in EHPAD. We have since observed that the number of deaths and cases in Europe had exceeded those of China which since the end of January had put practically all of Hibei province in containment zone (closure of airports, train and bus stations, waterways, motorways and all communication routes to the outside filtered by the army.

Geographic area Confirmed cases Dead Mortality rate
China 81,872 3,287 4%
Europe 204,930 11,810 5.7%
Italy 74,386 7,503 10%
Germany 38,182,197 0.5%
Spain 47,610 3,486 7.3%
France (1st country contaminated following returns from China) 25,233 * 1,331 ** 5.2%
World 416,916 18,565 4.4%

On March 11, WHO declared it to be a pandemic. In Europe, Italy, strongly affected with an increasing number of deaths every day, had taken unprecedented measures including that of quarantining the whole country (limited movement, closed schools, banned gatherings including sports. Faced with this health disaster , international aid from China, Cuba and Russia has been launched to help our transalpine neighbors (China: around fifty experienced doctors and medical equipment; Cuba: 52 doctors and nurses who have partly fought against Ebola virus in Africa; Russia: no less than 14 military transport planes containing Russian military doctors and medical equipment).

On March 17, France was placed in confinement, it is still possible to go to work, to do sport (individual), to walk your dog … However, you must have a certificate on your honor which specifies the day and type of trip. Failure to honor this declaration results in a fine of 135 euros.

March 25, 2020, while China lifted its drastic quarantine established in Hubei province, after 2 months of successful struggle, leaving however many schools closed and a quarantine of 14 days as in Shanghai, for people from of Hubei to be applied, France hardened the conditions of confinement.

Around the world, teams of researchers share their discoveries. In China, the United States, Russia, Europe (France and Germany) and Cuba, laboratories are rushing to find a remedy and then a vaccine within 12 to 18 months.

CHINA: Hubei Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Huazhong University of Science and Technology have shown progress in scientific research on the prevention and control of the epidemic, such as clinical drug testing and development of vaccines. Chinese researchers have isolated strains of the new coronavirus in a short time, identified pathogenesis, developed a nucleic acid test kit and discovered clinically effective medicines from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine, save precious time for rapid diagnosis and scientific prevention and treatment. Work on strengthening research on tracing sources of the virus, transmission dynamics, medical treatment, drug testing and vaccine development will be intensified to achieve the goal.

While the WHO declared that the epidemic became pandemic, its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared 2 days before China was in the process of controlling the epidemic but the scientists continue to search for the animal origin sold on a market , could be at the root of the epidemic. The hypotheses on snakes, pangolins or even the civets responsible for the SARS epidemic in 2004 have been ruled out but are currently focused on bats. After the green light given by the authorities on March 17, a first clinical trial was tested on March 20 on a hundred volunteers divided into 3 groups, all from Wuhan. The 108 people aged 18 to 60 received the first injections and should be followed for 6 months. « The development of a vaccine is a battle that China cannot afford to lose, » said the Global Times newspaper.

UNITED STATES: On March 16, 2020, the Americans announced the first test of a Covid-19 vaccine in Seattle on 45 adult volunteers aged 18 to 55 as the tone rises between Beijing and Washington. Participants will have to undergo 6 phases during 6 weeks to know if the vaccine is effective and safe. US officials have estimated that it will take another year to a year and a half before the mRNA-1273 vaccine, developed by scientists from NIH and the biotechnology company Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is available.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals has received a $ 5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support testing and scaling up of a Covid-19 smart delivery device, the INO-4800 undergoing pre-clinical studies and is expected to enter clinical trials in the United States in April.

Regeneron is trying to isolate the antibodies capable of fighting against the virus and then administer them intravenously to provide temporary immunity. She hopes to start clinical trials this summer.

Gilead Sciences and its antiviral treatment called remdesivirst is in the last phase of clinical trials in Asia and China. Doctors have reported that it is effective in fighting the disease.

GERMANY: Developed by the CureVac laboratory and courted by the United States to obtain exclusivity, the German vaccine will be made by infiltrating genetic material into cells, using messenger RNA, or mRNA, the molecule that serves intermediary between DNA and the proteins it codes for; an innovative and promising technique. However, its success is still far from guaranteed. While researchers have been working on the vaccine since late January 2020, it will be ready for testing by the next few months.

RUSSIA: A vaccine on animals is starting to be tested. The first results will be known in June. The country had assured in January immediately launch into the development of a vaccine, after having received from China the genome of Covid-19. A prototype vaccine against the new coronavirus (Covid-19) created could be ready within three months.

CUBA: Selected from around thirty other products, the Cuban drug interferon alfa 2b has been selected by the Chinese National Health Commission to treat coronavirus. Usually this treatment, IFNrec, is applied against viral infections caused by HIV, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis caused by the human papillomavirus, genital warts and hepatitis types B and C, in addition to being effective in therapies for different types of cancer. In the case of the coronavirus, the interferon Alfa 2b participates in strengthening the immune system of the patients. In China, the Sino-Cuban Changheber factory began manufacturing on January 25.

FRANCE: In Marseille, the team of the controversial researcher, infectiologist and professor of microbiology, Didier Raoult relied on the work of Chinese scientists and doctors to defend the use of hydrochloroquine, a molecule used for many years against malaria and lupus. Specialist in emerging tropical infectious diseases at the Faculty of Medical and Paramedical Sciences of Marseille and at the Mediterranean IHU, he wishes to associate it with an antibiotic, azithromycin, to fight against the epidemic. Hydroxychloroquine could bind to certain receptors targeted by the coronavirus named Sars-Cov-2 and hinder its spread in the body. However, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran issued a decree on March 27 authorizing the delivery of hydroxychloroquine in a supervised manner. The opinion of the scientific and medical body estimated until today that the proofs of an effectiveness or an ineffectiveness were insufficient to date and that it was necessary to await the results of the studies carried out in accordance with the usual protocols.

The Institut Pasteur has produced an official tool, already widely used, which consists of taking stock of his state of health: an algorithm that can be consulted on all digital media with an internet connection, implemented 10 days ago. Consisting of 23 questions, it allows you to assess your state of health by giving you an answer ranging from the call to 15 to the absence of concern through the call of your doctor. The first of the instructions being confinement. In January, a « Task Force » was launched by the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the International Network of 32 Pasteur Institutes mobilized all over the world to respond with science to the pandemic of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. It brings together 300 people in Paris and several teams from the Network in different countries, 16 research projects are underway, and several other projects will start very soon.

This afternoon of March 27, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the extension of the confinement at least until April 15. The Scientific Council, created especially for the Covid-19 crisis and consulted by Emmanuel Macron recommended « at least 6 weeks of confinement ».

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