VACCINE TRIAL IN WUHAN SHOWS PROMISE, BUT A LONG WAY TO GO

NEWDELHI: A vaccine for the SarsCov-2 virus developed by researchers at China’s CanSino Biologics was found to be safe and effective in its first test on humans, becoming the latest trial that raises hope for an early candidate that could help make people immune to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The result of CanSino’s Phase 1 trial, reported in The Lancet on Friday, is the first to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The Chinese researchers reported that their experimental vaccine produced neutralising antibodies — the type of immune cells that kill infected cells — and the rapid immune responses crucial for the body to mount its varied counter-attack. The trials were carried out with 108 healthy participants from Wuhan who were never infected by the virus.

The results are based on antibody and immune cell concentrations seen within 28 days of the vaccine being given to the participants in a low, medium or high dose. The ones given the high dose had the strongest immune response but also suffered from the most side-effects, such as high fever, fatigue and headache.››P10