More than 100 vaccines for Covid-19 are in the works globally.
123RF/ktsdesign
A drug being tested by scientists at China's prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say. Sunney Xie, director of the university's Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.
He added that the drug should be ready for use later this year and in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has infected 4.8 million people around the world and killed more than 315,000. China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.But the World Health Organisation has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months. Scientists have also pointed to the potential benefits of plasma — a blood fluid — from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus enabling the body's defences to attack it.
Xie said his researchers had"an early start" since the outbreak started in China before spreading to other countries. Ebola drug Remdesivir was considered a hopeful early treatment for Covid-19 — clinical trials in the US showed it shortened the recovery time in some patients by a third — but the difference in mortality rate was not significant.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES | 40,000 could die in SA when Covid-19 storm peaks: expertsEven as most of the country prepares to head to level 3 of government's alert levels at the end of this month, the department of health can only hope that it will have done enough to drill into South Africans the need to practise the non-pharmaceutical interventions of social distancing, heightened hygiene and mask wearing, in the absence of treatment for the virus.
Read more »
Chinese scientists believe new drug can stop Covid-19 pandemic 'without vaccine'More than 100 vaccines for Covid-19 are in the works globally.
Read more »
Covid-19 in SA: Mmusi Maimane warns against rush to return to schoolChief activist of the One South Africa Movement Mmusi Maimane is hitting the ground running with a petition against classes being resumed. schools lockdown
Read more »
5 key findings of the UKZN probe into the Covid-19 outbreak at St Augustine’s HospitalThe academics said that through detailed analysis of the timelines they were able to build a hypothesis of the most likely chain of events and understand how the virus spread around StAugustines. Covid19SA DailyNewsSA
Read more »
Newborn baby is SA's youngest Covid-19 victim as cases hit 18 000The number of positive Covid-19 cases in SA has increased by 803 to 18 003 in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry announced. The death toll has increased to 339.
Read more »
COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES | 'Trump drug' to go on trial in SA and globally to test whether it blocks Covid-19South African scientists are preparing to join a major international clinical trial to test whether the antimalarial drug chloroquine can protect healthcare workers from Covid-19 infection.
Read more »