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The World Health Organization said Tuesday that some treatments appear to be limiting the severity or duration of Covid-19 disease and that it was focusing on learning more about four or five of the most promising.
The Geneva-based WHO is leading a global initiative to develop safe and effective vaccines, tests and drugs to prevent, diagnose and treat Covid-19. Respiratory disease has infected 4.19 million people worldwide, according to a Reuters count.
“We have some treatments that appear to be in very early studies that limit the severity or duration of the disease, but we have nothing that can kill or stop the virus,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a briefing, referring to the disease. Body. called Solidarity Trial of drugs against the disease.
“We have potentially positive data, but we need to see more data to be 100 percent sure we can tell this treatment on that one,” he added, saying more research was needed and that it was planned.
Mrs. Harris did not mention the treatments. Gilead Science Inc says its antiviral medication remdesivir has helped improve outcomes for patients with Covid-19.
Clinical data published last month on remdesivir raised hopes that it could be an effective treatment. Several studies looking at combinations of antiviral drugs have also suggested that they can help patients fight the virus.
Results from a Hong Kong trial published this month showed that a triple combination of antiviral drugs helped relieve symptoms in patients with mild or moderate Covid-19 infection and quickly reduced the amount of virus in their bodies.
The trial, which involved 127 patients, compared those who received the combination drug, consisting of the HIV drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the hepatitis drug ribavirin, and treatment of multiple sclerosis interferon beta, with a control group that received only the HIV medicine.
A treatment of malaria advocated by United States President Donald Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against coronavirus again failed to show benefit in hospitalized patients with Covid-19, according to a study this month.
Although the study had certain limitations, physicians reported that the use of hydroxycolloquine did not decrease the need for patients requiring respiratory assistance or the risk of death.
Vaccine
In Geneva, the WHO official issued a cautionary note about expectations for a vaccine, saying that coronaviruses in general are “very difficult viruses” that are “difficult to produce vaccines.”
More than 100 potential Covid-19 vaccines are being developed, including several in clinical trials. The WHO said in April that a vaccine would take at least 12 months.
Ms. Harris said that America was the current “center” of the pandemic, although she also noted growing cases in Africa. However, he said the continent had a “great advantage” over other countries with little experience in infectious disease outbreaks.
“They often have a very good contact tracing infrastructure and a deep, deep, deep memory and understanding of why we take a new pathogen very, very seriously,” he said, pointing to South Africa for its effective testing and contact tracing.
When asked about the reasons for the large number of cases in the United States and Brazil, Ms. Harris said: “All over the world we have seen that the warnings we issued from the beginning, very, very early, were not seen. as warnings about a very serious, lethal disease. “
She reiterated that the WHO, which has been especially criticized by the United States for its handling of the pandemic, would conduct a “post-action” review that would include a “free and frank” discussion of its performance.
Group immunity
However, the WHO has condemned the “dangerous” concept of collective immunity for Covid-19.
Herd immunity is an epidemiological term generally reserved to describe how the population as a whole is protected against disease, depending on the levels of vaccinated people.
When asked about the concept that applies to the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO said that “no one is safe until everyone is safe” and that it is “dangerous” to think that countries can “magically achieve collective immunity” .
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said at a press conference in Geneva: “Humans are not herds and as such the concept of collective immunity is generally reserved for calculating how many people will need get vaccinated and the population to generate that effect.
“This is a serious disease, this is public enemy number one, we have been saying it over and over again.”
He said “no one is safe until everyone is safe,” adding: “So I think this idea that ‘perhaps countries that have lax and have done nothing will suddenly magically achieve some collective immunity, and what if do we lose some older people on the way? ‘- this is a really dangerous calculation, dangerous.
“And I think that none of the member states is willing to do that arithmetic.
“The responsible Member States will analyze their entire population: they value all members of society and try to do everything possible to protect health and, at the same time, obviously, protect society and protect the economy and other things. We need to get our priorities right as we enter the next phase of this fight. “
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical leader of the WHO’s Covid-19 response, said preliminary study data has shown that very low levels of the population have actually been infected with the disease.
“There seems to be a consistent pattern so far, that a low proportion of people have these antibodies.
“And that’s important, as you mentioned, because you mentioned this word” collective immunity, “which is normally a phrase used when thinking about vaccination. Do you think how much of the population needs immunity to protect the rest of the population?
“We don’t know exactly what that level should be for Covid-19.
“But it certainly must be higher than what we are seeing in seroprevalence studies.
“What seroepidemiological studies tell us is that there is a large portion of the population that remains susceptible.” –Reuters / PA
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