For an effective vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus diseases, the world needs to wait from weeks to months, opines the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for the Organization’s coronavirus response, said this while talking to CNN’s town hall April 23.
Dr. Maria’s comment on a possible vaccine came at a time when WHO chief warned that the world needed to wait for a long time to see the end to the ongoing crisis centering the virus.
According to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, there are currently more than 100 research projects underway to find a vaccine to treat patients diagnosed with Covid-19, the official name of the novel coronavirus. Of them, seven are now in clinical trials including the one by Oxford University in UK. The researchers at the university on April 23 gave the first dose of their medicine into a volunteer with the aim to taking a working medication to the public later this year.
Vaccine trials are also underway in China and the USA. Germany is set to go for the trial at the end of this month as the country’s federal vaccine authority gave the green light on April 22.
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Asked about whether or not there is a workable vaccine available, Dr Maria replied, ‘everyone in the world wants to know which drugs, which medications are going to work, which medications are going to save lives. Unfortunately, right now, we don’t have any evidence one works, yet.’ But this official added that the WHO was closely monitoring the hundreds of covid-19 vaccine projects now underway across the world.
Praising the research projects and expressing hope for a cure, Dr Maria Van said, ‘so we can get to the answer that everybody needs. The results can’t come soon enough. But the world is weeks to months from knowing what works.’ Source : CNN, AFP
