Loading...

Search for Covid-19 cure


Search for Covid-19 cure

An invisible assassin is stalking the entire globe causing mayhem, havoc, disease and deaths, forcing panicked people to stay home even at the cost of livelihoods and leaving behind a trail of shattered economies and battered societies.

As the world grapples with the huge fallout from this pandemic invasion by novel coronavirus, the scientific communities are racing against time to invent and initiate clinical trials of vaccines and drugs to halt the menace by any means.

Vaccines are one of the most effective means for preventing viral diseases, as it is aimed at stimulating the body's immune system to fight against infectious pathogens like virus and bacteria. A vaccine is essentially a preparation of one or more key components of a virus, which is injected into the body to provide the immune system with a preview of the virus without causing the actual disease. It later helps the immune system to track and attack the virus containing those specific proteins.

Production of a vaccine usually takes a long time (even decades), as it has to pass through numerous stages before getting regulatory nod. Broadly, it can be broken down into six phases: (1) vaccine design; (2) animal studies, when the vaccine is tested on animals; (3) phase-1 of clinical trials, when only a small sample of humans are enrolled for testing safety, dose and side-effects of a vaccine; (4) phase-2 of the clinical trial, when a larger group of patients are enlisted to assess physiological responses resulting from the vaccine; (5) phase-3 of the clinical trial, when an even greater number of volunteers are tested over a longer period of time; (6) the last phase is regulatory approval, when relevant agencies examine the experimental evidences and decide on whether the vaccine should be endorsed as a treatment option.

Because of the urgency of the current situation, entities such as Moderna of the USA and CSIRO of Australia are expediting the process even by skipping stages. CSIRO has partnered with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and is collaborating with the University of Oxford and the US-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals for swift development of a vaccine.

Although no specific treatment has yet been developed for Covid-19, some experimental anti-viral drugs as well as some existing medicines meant for targeting other pathogens have shown some promise in treating it. These include anti-viral 'Remdesivir' produced by American biotech firm Gilead Sciences, which has been administered in the USA, China and Italy on a 'compassionate basis'.

The Japanese drug 'Favipiravir' or 'Avigan' is another prospective medicine that showed encouraging signs during clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen of China, as it shortened duration of the disease by 60 per cent. This anti-viral targets RNA viruses like Novel Corona. Two anti-malarial drugs - Chloroquine and Hydoxychloroquine - around for about 70 years - have also been found to be effective in treating Covid-19 patients during trials. They stimulate the immune system and appear to block viruses from binding to human cells and infiltrating for replication. Combining the antibiotic 'Azithromycin' with Hydroxychloroquine alongside Vitamin-C as supplement has also yielded positive outcomes for many patients.

The WHO has initiated an international 'Solidarity' clinical trial programme for finding Covid-19 cures, which include testing drugs like Remdesivir, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Chloroquine, and certain Cytokines. Besides, the drugs Actemra/RoActemra produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche and Interferon alfa-2b (Heberon Alfa R) from Cuba have also shown promising signs in treating patients.

Another treatment option called 'Convalescent Plasma Therapy' obtains a fraction of blood from patients who have recovered and then infuses that into the bodies of sick patients. The immune system of the body sends out an army of cells including white blood cells to fight the virus when it invades. These cells in turn release antibodies that linger in the blood's liquid part. Therefore, when a patient survives the disease, s/he is likely to have built up a huge stock of antibodies in her/his plasma. Therefore, infusing a part of this stock into the blood of a sick patient potentially stimulates his immune system, thereby enabling the system to attack and destroy the virus. 

Scientists are also looking for other alternative treatments. For example, Chinese scientists are having a look at the sex-pill Viagra, as it is likely to help the Covid-19 patients overcome respiratory distress by dilating blood vessels. Researchers have launched a clinical trial at hospitals in Boston, Alabama, Louisiana, Sweden and Austria to test the effect of inhaled Nitric Oxide on Covid-19 patients having mild to moderate symptoms.

As the number of coronavirus-patients spikes alarmingly on a global scale including in Bangladesh, the scientific communities must gear up efforts for finding effective cures, including antiviral drugs and vaccines, swiftly in order to facilitate future survival and wellbeing of mankind.

 

Dr. Helal Uddin Ahmed is a retired Additional Secretary and former Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly.

[email protected]

 

Share if you like

Filter By Topic