100-Year-Old TB Medicine Could Accelerate COVID-19 Vaccine, According To WHO
While a dedicated cure or a vaccine for the COVID 19 pandemic that has engulfed the world being at least a year away, scientists have turned to existing vaccines to see their effects on the Coronavirus. In Melbourne, a similar experiment being carried out will see shots of tuberculosis vaccine being administered to the health care workers in the region.
Called bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, the immunity shot has been used widely for about a century now. Interestingly, apart from its core purpose, the vaccine also has many off-target benefits including. It works as a common immunotherapy for early-stage bladder cancer and trains the body¡¯s first line of immune defense to fight infections.
(Representative Image: Reuters)
In a hope that the vaccine would have a similar effect on the Coronavirus, the World Health Organisation is now encouraging international groups to try out BCG and note its effects.
The attempt at the vaccine shot comes through a study led by Nigel Curtis, head of infectious diseases research, Murdoch Children¡¯s Research Institute in Melbourne. "It can boost the immune system so that it defends better against a whole range of different infections, a whole range of different viruses and bacteria in a lot more generalized way," said Curtis.
The trial period
With the ongoing pandemic, healthcare workers are the priority for this trial. The entire experiment is aimed to prepare them with a better immunity against the Coronavirus and help reduce the risk posed to them through patients to minimal.
"We need to think of every possible way that we can protect health-care workers," Curtis said. "And there¡¯s going to be a particular need to reduce the amount of time that our health-care workers are absent."
The trial will be conducted over a period of six months in Australia and a total of 4000 health workers have already volunteered for it. The BCG vaccine will be randomly tested on the enrolled healthcare workers starting Monday. It can be ensured who got the shot as a BCG vaccine typically leaves a localised scar, so just a placebo effect is out of the question.
(Representative Image: Reuters)
More such trials
The research is not limited to Melbourne as Curtis confirmed that similar trials are being conducted in Netherlands and that potential sites for the same are actively being looked at in other Australian cities as well as Boston, a city in the United States. In fact, other than the attempts at a vaccine, some are even working towards developing a remedy for the disease, like this team of doctors in Bengaluru.
The crux is, many believe this would work. "We wouldn¡¯t be doing this if we didn¡¯t think that this might work," Curtis said. "We cannot guarantee that this will work. And of course, the only way to find out is with our trial."
So till the time we are not close to a COVID-19 dedicated vaccine, a BCG shot should be a great boon if found to be helpful against the Coronavirus.A Possible Vaccine Against Coronavirus - A 100-Yr Old Vaccine For TB
