In the race against time to find a vaccine to fight the coronavirus, The United Kingdom is preparing to be the first country to carry out "human challenge" tests in which up to 90 healthy volunteers will be deliberately exposed to covid-19.
What does it consist of?
Human challenge studies offer a faster way to test vaccines because you don't have to wait for patients to be exposed to disease naturally.
Researchers would first apply controlled doses of the pandemic virus to find out the smallest amount that could cause a covid-19 infection in volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30. The volunteers would be infected with the virus through the nose and would be observed 24 hours, they present the least risk of harm due to their youth and good health.
The first stage of the human challenge project will be launched by a partnership between Imperial College London, a specialist and secure research unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London and a company called hVIVO.
After being exposed to COVID-19, the young volunteers will have to stay in a biosecure facility [which follows strict protocols for the control of biological agents] until they are no longer infected.
Also, the volunteers will be reimbursed financially for their time and will be monitored for more than a year after participating in the study for any side effects.
Although hundreds of vaccines against covid-19 are being developed around the world and several of the most advanced are already in the final phase of trials, including that of the University of Oxford, And some of these could get results and be applied before the new study has a chance to start, the researchers say their work would continue to be useful for comparative studies to find out which vaccine works best.
However, deliberately infecting someone with COVID-19 presents an ethical dilemma, especially when there is no treatment to cure patients, although there are some that can make the disease less virulent.
And you, What do you think about the human challenge?
