RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Microbiologist and physician Yuen Kwok-yung announced that researchers in Hong Kong have already developed a vaccine against China’s new coronavirus. However, it still needs to be tested on animals, which should take some time, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
Kwok-yung, director of the infectious disease center at the University of Hong Kong, has not specified a deadline for the development of the vaccine against China’s new coronavirus. He believes that the time for animal testing could take months and that an additional year for human testing will be required before the vaccine is released.
The new vaccine is a modification of the influenza vaccine that aims to protect both the Chinese coronavirus and the common flu.
According to Kwok-yung, the vaccine currently under development in China is likely to be based on an inactive version of the virus, which has its infectious property destroyed in the laboratory, possibly resulting in more severe symptoms than normal in people who take the vaccine and are contaminated with the virus.
In addition to China, researchers in the United States are also working to develop a vaccine against the new virus.
What is the coronavirus?
The Chinese coronavirus is a new virus that has already killed 100 people in China and has been spread to other countries, such as the United States, Japan and Europe. With flu-like symptoms, the virus belongs to the same family as SARS, which in the early 2000s caused an epidemic known as the Asian flu.
By Wednesday morning, there were 132 confirmed deaths, 125 of them in the Hubei province, the epicentre of propagation. There are now more than 6,000 confirmed cases in 17 countries.
There are three suspected cases in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Health, in Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Porto Alegre. The government has recommended that travel to China be made only in cases of extreme need, as recommended by the World Health Organization.
To contain the virus from spreading, governments and private companies have been taking tougher measures in recent hours.
Ten Chinese cities are isolated. The Starbucks chain, a phenomenon in China, has closed half of its 2,000 stores in the country. The White House has announced it may suspend all flights from the United States to China amid growing concerns.
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