of herd immunity, plasma therapy, vaccines and medicines for COVID-19!

In view of the worrying increase of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus) worldwide, the most affected country, USA, has a second wave and in India, Brazil and others, infections continue , despair for treatment measures is growing all the time. Furthermore, the World Health Organization (WHO) has consistently maintained that the possibility of having a vaccine is at least a year and a half away. The WHO has also maintained that there is as yet no proven cure for COVID-19. The basic reason that justifies this kind of despair is that this virus is much more dangerous than recent viruses, its mortality rate is almost 10 times higher than those of them. The virus has wreaked havoc on planet Earth before humans understood and knew much about it. Therefore, various topics related to herd immunity, plasma therapy, vaccine development, and the use of repurposed drugs are continuously discussed and experienced all over the world.

The term “herd immunity” basically means that if the majority of the population becomes immune to a particular infectious disease, they will gain indirect protection than those who are not immune to it. For example, if 80% of the population gets immunity, four out of five people will not get sick despite being in contact with infected people. At least 70-90% immunity will be required to achieve effective herd immunity that can keep the virus in check. The problems come when talking about how to achieve this herd immunity. There are two ways to achieve herd immunity: if precautions and social norms are not strictly followed, a large part of the population is likely to get infected, and if it is at least 70%, the population can get herd immunity, and second, simply through the development of a vaccine. In the first case, the cost of large numbers of people becoming infected will be very high and high in terms of loss of life. In India and other populous countries, large portions of the population are susceptible to or exposed to the virus, and it is not advisable to achieve herd immunity the first way. Therefore, the only way to achieve this would be through a developed vaccine, and until it is ready for mass use, infections must be kept in check by enforcing strict social distancing and other regulations.

Plasma therapy has emerged as a very positive development for the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients in which the blood plasma of recovered coronavirus patients is injected and the antibodies it contains help to cure them. In India, this therapy is being practiced with good results; Plasma banks are being established in Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra, among others, with requests for recovered patients to donate plasma. In fact, the Delhi Health Minister who fell seriously ill with COVID-19 eventually recovered with this therapy.

The WHO has stipulated very strict procedures for the development of COVID vaccines: the vaccine produced has to go through three rigorous phases of clinical trials with increasing numbers of human volunteers receiving doses before being declared safe for use, which would take several months in addition to the required months. for mass manufacturing and distribution. Right now, there are around 100 vaccine candidates around the world, including seven companies in India, some of which are already approved for human clinical trials: the UK-developed Oxford vaccine currently in phase three testing; Germany’s CureVac Approved for Clinical Trials; a Russian COVID vaccine claims to have successfully completed all three phases of human testing and is now ready for mass production and at least two vaccines in trials in India with the first Indian vaccine candidate Covaxin from Bharat Biotech getting the Comptroller General of Drugs of India (DCGI) approval for human trials. In fact, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the leading medical body, recently created controversy by directing stakeholders to speed up Covaxin so that it is ready for mass use by August 15. of 2020, which was quickly rejected by the Government of India. It must be emphasized here that even if a vaccine is eventually approved for mass use, its effectiveness will still be under scrutiny, because each vaccine mutates frequently and therefore there is no guarantee that a vaccinated person will not contract COVID-19 in possibly a year or more.

As an integral part of the desperate search for cures or treatments for COVID, various repurposed drugs have been continuously tested to treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Hydroxychloroquine, a drug used successfully for the treatment of malaria in India, was first tested on the infected medical fraternity, prompting a wave of exports from India at the request of several countries, including the US. However, finally, the WHO suspended its trials in July 2020 for reasons of side effects and safety. The antiviral drug Favipiravir, originally produced in Japan to fight influenza, under the name of Fabiflu distributed by Glenmark Pharma, was officially approved in June 2020 to treat patients with mild to moderate Corona in several countries. However, its side effects are under scrutiny and the DCGI has only approved emergency use with prescriptions.

The WHO has high hopes for the efficacy of a corticosteroid called Dexamethasone as a life-saving medicine for severely ill Corona patients according to the clinical trial in the UK. Since dexamethasone is basically an anti-inflammatory drug, its use is only to reduce mortality rates in patients who require oxygen or respiratory assistance. Another antiviral drug, Remdesivir (Covifor) produced by Gilead Sciences is so far the only accepted drug for the treatment of COVID-19 approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and recently distributed in India too which caused a craze with reports. black market However, this medication is not for public purchase in pharmacies, and only for supply to hospitals for doctors to prescribe at their discretion for severe COVID patients. However, the overall safety of the drug has not yet been proven.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And the search for a possible cure for the killer virus continues. In the meantime, humanity must adjust to the new normal by following strict rules of social distancing and other precautions, for at least another year, hopefully.