Trial results from South Africa, Brazil and – soon – the United States (US) will likely be critical in assessing the efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford which, it was announced yesterday, appears to be safe and trains the immune system.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was one of 23 potential vaccines in development thus far.
BCC health and science correspondent James Gallagher noted yesterday that the initial trial results of the Oxford vaccine were ‘only the first hurdle’, showing that the vaccine ‘can induce an immune response, including both antibodies that attack the virus and T-cells, which hunt out and kill cells infected by the virus’.
What is not yet known is what level of immune response is needed to protect people from coronavirus.
He added: ‘The answers at the moment are unlikely to come from the UK as there is not enough coronavirus doing the rounds to prove whether the vaccine is making a difference.’ But trials were under way in South Africa and Brazil and there were plans for a trial in the US too.
News of the success of the initial trials in the United Kingdom coincided with a report in South Africa last night of a Durban doctor having a Covid-19 patient who became re-infected three months after her initial infection.
News24 reported that the patient had initially received her positive results on 9 March, a negative test two weeks later, and then a positive result on 14 July.
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases was now monitoring this patient’s case.
World attention was focused yesterday on the announcement that the initial trials of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, involving 1 077 people, showed the injection led to their making antibodies and white blood cells capable of fighting the virus.
The vaccine – called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 – is being developed at unprecedented speed.
The BBC reported that the vaccine was made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees. It has been heavily modified, first so it cannot cause infections in people and also to make it ‘look’ more like coronavirus.
There were no dangerous side-effects from taking the vaccine, but 70% of people on the trial developed either fever or headache. The researchers say this could be managed with paracetamol.
Professor Sarah Gilbert of the University of Oxford team said: ‘There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise.’
The BBC noted that it could take a long time to develop a guaranteed vaccine. It pointed out that four coronaviruses already circulate in human beings, causing common cold symptoms, for which no vaccines have yet been developed.
This point was underlined by the WHO, which yesterday welcomed progress towards a vaccine but said much work still needed to be done to combat the spread of Covid-19.
At a briefing in Geneva, Dr Mike Ryan, director of the WHO emergencies programme, congratulated the scientists behind the Oxford vaccine, saying: ‘This is a positive result but again there is a long way to go.’
‘Real world’ trials would now be needed on a larger scale.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also emphasised that any successful vaccines must be accessible to all.
Meanwhile, it was also reported yesterday that preliminary results of a clinical trial suggest a new treatment for Covid-19 reduces the number of patients needing intensive care, according to the UK company that developed it.
According to a BBC report, the treatment from Southampton-based biotech Synairgen uses a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection. The protein is inhaled directly into the lungs of patients with coronavirus, using a nebuliser, in the hope that it will stimulate an immune response.
The initial findings suggest the treatment cut the odds of a Covid-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease – such as requiring ventilation – by 79%.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe – who tested positive last week, along with his wife, Nolwandle – was yesterday admitted to hospital for what a Presidency statement said was the ‘better medical attention and monitoring’ advised by the Mantashes’ family doctor.
His wife would continue self-isolating at home.
Two other ministers have tested positive: Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who has since recovered, and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi.
Cases in South Africa grew by 9 300 yesterday to a cumulative total of 373 628 (with 194 865 recoveries). Deaths rose by 140 to 5 173.
In other virus-related news
- Florida reported its fifth consecutive day of more than 10 000 new Covid-19 cases. On Sunday, an additional 12 478 people tested positive, according to the state health agency. The total number of cases since March in the Sunshine State is now more than 350 000. The death toll is nearing 5 000, and hospitals across the state say bed space is filling up;
- In Israel, nurses staged a general strike over staff shortages and poor conditions made worse by the pandemic. These factors, they said, made it impossible for them to work, the BBC reported. With more than 800 nurses in quarantine themselves, according to health ministry figures, and no-one to replace them, hospitals and health facilities are having to operate on reduced staffing and non-urgent operations have been cancelled. Head of the nurses’ union, Ilana Cohen, said: ‘We have no choice but to take matters into our own hands and prevent a health system collapse this coming winter.’ As in other parts of the world, Israel has experienced a resurgence of cases in recent weeks after largely relaxing restrictions following a marked decline in infections; and
- The number of global infections has risen to more than 14.4 million, with 605 000 deaths.