Triallist wants doctors to learn from him
A Soweto man has just become the first SA citizen to take part in an international Covid-19 vaccination trial.
Junior Mhlongo, 24, was injected with what medical scientists and vaccinologists hope will stop the global spread of Covid-19.
There are 2,000 South Africans taking part in the study.
Mhlongo said he was excited to be part of history. “I want to learn about the virus.
“I want doctors to be able to learn from me to help others.
“This is important. I am doing it to help, not for any other reason,” he said, speaking moments after receiving an injection at an undisclosed Gauteng medical facility.
Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at Wits University and director of the SA Medical Research Council’s vaccines and infectious diseases analytics research unit, said it was an exciting moment.
“I won’t lie, this has been keeping me up at night.
“It’s the safety of this trial that is the most important thing.”
On Tuesday, TimesLIVE reported that in addition to the SA cohort, 5,000 Brazilians had enrolled, and in earlier phases of the trial, after the vaccine was developed at the Oxford Jenner Institute, 4,000 Britons were enrolled, with plans for an additional 10,000 participants under way.
An even larger study (of the same vaccine) is planned for the US, where up to 30,000 people will be enrolled.
By vaccinating volunteers with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, scientists hope to make the human body recognise and develop an immune response that will help stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells and causing Covid-19.
All are to remain on the trial for a year.
The lead researcher on the Covid-19 vaccine trial that started in Johannesburg yesterday says there are likely a million South Africans with Covid19 right now.
Speaking during a webinar on MyHealthTV, Prof Shabir Madhi said, “When we say we have reached 100,000 cases, that is a complete underestimate. In my estimate, it is close to 10 times more — probably around a million people.
“There is increasing evidence that many are asymptomatic but are still spreaders.”
He said that one has to factor in the rate of testing and cannot compare countries.
“For example, we have a five- to six-fold lower rate of testing than in the UK.
“If you look at Nigeria, their population is four times higher than ours but their rate of testing is 40 times less than SA’s so it is incorrect to make any sort of comparison.”
He said the most meaningful metrics for comparison were the rates and numbers of people ending up in hospital, and the single most important factor was “citizen adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions” (social distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene).
“We are still in the first wave and we are probably going to experience three to four waves over the next two years.
“We haven’t even peaked, not even in the Western Cape.
“It will be completely dependent on the behaviour of South Africans rather than government interventions as to what the peak looks like.
“Citizens adhering to the non-pharmaceutical interventions is the single most important factor to prevent more peaks. It slows the rate of transmission,” he said.
Madhi said while admissions to hospitals were the best indicator, SA needed to make sure of availability to facilitate those admissions.
Because of this, “there is more of a case to be made for banning alcohol than cigarettes, and that discussion has become unmanageable”.
“The changes that take place in the lungs take a while,” he said.
He said stopping smoking would not have an impact on the number of people getting Covid-19, whereas alcohol intake increased car crashes and interpersonal injuries, and thus needed beds were unavailable for Covid-19 patients.
Madhi is heading up the groundbreaking trial but also gives a realistic account of what people can expect.
On the upside, the development of any of the potential
Covid-19 vaccines was being accelerated, he said.
“It usually takes between 10 and five years for a vaccine to be developed. It is an accelerated development pathway.
“We are trying to condense five to 10 years into one to two years.”
On the downside (or more realistic side): “One must remember that the chances of success of any human trial is only around 10% because of stringent assessment of safety and efficacy,” he said.
“There are more than 200 groups trying to develop Covid-19 vaccines and six are at the human-trial stage.
“We are hoping to get an answer by the end of this year but that does not mean the vaccine will be available.
“They would still need to be reviewed, and then we would need to have manufacturing facilities that can produce the vaccines. Scaling up production for global access takes time,” he said.