THE RACE TO FIND THE COVID-19 CURE

By Cassious David Kisakye

On December 31st, 2019 scientists in China reported cases of an unknown disease causing severe pneumonia. This disease was traced to a food market in Wuhan, Eastern China and the World Health Organization later named it, COVID-19.

The speed of the spread of COVID-19 has increased the need for a cure.
(Courtesy photo) 

Five months on and COVID-19 has spread to every continent but Antarctica. It has infected just over 2 million people and proved fatal to over 137,000 others. In that time period even Uganda hasn’t been spared as the number of confirmed cases rose to 61 in a month. With many countries under lockdown and millions at risk of infection, one question lingers on, will a cure be found?

President Museveni has been uncompromising in his guidelines during this pandemic.
(Courtesy photo) 

The world’s most renowned virologists are looking into developing a cure and their expertise is being tested to the limit as development of vaccines is a long and tedious process.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the launch of a multi-country clinical study called Solidarity. This study is to begin trials on four types of vaccines, Remdesivir, which was used in the Ebola drug and appears to be effective on other viruses.
There is also Chloroquine, the anti-malarial drug which has shown it can kill the virus but WHO says there’s no definitive evidence of its effectiveness.
The third option is Interferon-beta which has shown the ability to reduce inflammation in lungs, one of the symptoms of COVID-19.
The final one is a combination of Lopinavir and Ritonavir which is still under experimentation.

A lab in Seattle, USA has been given a go ahead in furthering tests on a possible COVID-19 cure.
(courtesy photo) 

The efforts of WHO are also being backed up by many other institutions in this race against time. The available data shows 35 companies and a host of higher learning organizations are involved and they seem to be yielding results.
With 4 vaccines already being tested on animals and over 20 others in development. The first clinical trials of a vaccine were from the Boston-based firm, Moderna and signs show that human trials are imminent. Trials on humans on a vaccine were first done in Seattle, USA and later commenced in England and Scotland using the antiviral Remdesivir and further tests are still being carried out.

There has also been involvement from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations(CEPI) which has set up a plan to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and boost manufacturing of it, CEPI earlier this month called for $2bn as necessary funding for this project. Pharmaceutical firm, Sanoti is also trying to build on its already-approved flu vaccine to get a suitable one to treat COVID-19.
The University of Oxford is focusing on a treatment of external Spike proteins which has shown to develop immunity against the virus.
Billionaire philanthropist, Bill Gates said his foundation is funding the construction of factories that will manufacture seven promising coronavirus vaccines. Gates told the Daily Show host,Trevor Noah: “We’re going to fund factories for all seven just so we don’t waste time in serially saying ‘ok which vaccine works’ and then building the factory,”

Bill Gates announced during his interview with Trevor Noah that his foundation was to invest billions of dollars as funding for the COVID-19 cure.
(Photo by Daily Show

The way vaccines work is that when the body is exposed to the harmless bug, it in theory develops immunity against the infection over time. With so many people behind this search for the cure, we are left with understanding what exact timeframe the world is looking at till a vaccine is got. President Donald Trump rather prematurely claimed that a vaccine would be got in a matter of months but, Prof Annelies Wilder-Smith of the Emerging Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: “Like most vacciniogists, I don’t think this vaccine will be ready before 18 months”.

The search for a vaccine demands patience but there already exist treatments for COVID-19 and many hospitals have used medication for influenza and other severe respiratory illnesses like fever, cough and shortness of breath to help the infected.
In some severe cases, Ventilators are used to blow air into the lungs through a mask inserted directly into the windpipe but even these costly machines are in low supply compared to the current demand for them.

Some medical experts say that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t shocked them as there were signs before of another coronavirus outbreak as there already exist four of them that circulate in human beings. They cause the common cold and we don’t have vaccines for any of them.
The past Coronavirus outbreaks like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-04 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 which broke out in Saudi Arabia were all a warning sign of things to come and yet the search for those vaccines was stalled when the outbreak seized. The COVID-19 disease is caused by the virus, SARS Cov-2 which shares 80% - 90% of it’s genetic material with SARS.

COVID-19 isn't the first Coronavirus but just like others, the cure doesn't exist

Maybe if we had persisted with the search for the vaccine, we might have got one for COVID-19 but that is just a theory. n
Unlike past vaccines that took decades to go through clinical and human trials then medical approval, we need this one as soon as possible.