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Century-Old Vaccine Investigated as a Weapon Against Coronavirus

彭博社 Bloomberg
https://tinyurl.com/wcz3guf

A vaccine that’s been used to prevent tuberculosis is being given to
health-care workers in Melbourne to see if it will protect them against the
coronavirus.

The bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, shot has been used widely for about 100
years, with a growing appreciation for its off-target benefits. Not only is
it a common immunotherapy for early-stage bladder cancer, it also seems to
train the body’s first line of immune defense to better fight infections.

With an immunization specifically targeted against the pandemic-causing
Covid-19 disease at least a year away, the World Health Organization says it’
s important to know whether the BCG vaccine can reduce disease in those
infected with the coronavirus, and is encouraging international groups to
collaborate with a study led by Nigel Curtis, head of infectious diseases
research, at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne.

“It can boost the immune system so that it defends better against a whole
range of different infections, a whole range of different viruses and
bacteria in a lot more generalized way,” said Curtis, who’s also a
professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne and
head of the infectious diseases unit at the city’s Royal Children’s
Hospital.

Hospital staff who volunteered to be part of a six-month trial in Australia
involving 4,000 health-care workers will be randomly allocated to be
vaccinated starting Monday against seasonal influenza and TB, or the flu shot
only.

A placebo vaccine won’t work as a control in this case because the BCG shot
typically causes a localized skin reaction that leaves a scar, making it
obvious which group received the TB vaccination.

Similar research is going on in the Netherlands. Curtis, in an interview
Saturday, said he’s in discussions with potential trial sites in other
Australian cities as well as Boston.

Although the inexpensive vaccine, which is used to immunize some 130 million
newborns worldwide each year, may potentially offer protection to a broader
group of people, the priority is on health workers who are at higher risk
from being infected with coronavirus while caring for sick patients.

“We need to think of every possible way that we can protect health-care
workers,” Curtis said. “And there’s going to be a particular need to
reduce the amount of time that our health-care workers are absent.”

Studies in infants in Africa have shown that the BCG vaccine offers
protection against TB and other pediatric infections, probably by enhancing
the body’s innate immune system -- specifically white blood cells that
target non-specific pathogens before an antibody response has kicked in
usually days later.

Blood samples taken at the start and end of the trial will determine who was
infected with the coronavirus, while participants will log any symptoms
during the trial period. The study’s data monitoring committee will review
the results after three months to look for any signs that the approach is
working.

“We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think that this might work,”
Curtis said. “We cannot guarantee that this will work. And of course, the
only way to find out is with our trial.”

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非醫學專業不敢亂翻譯QQ

但大致上是因為開發新疫苗太久

WHO鼓勵世界各國專家找找舊的方法

有人想到某種結核疫苗(卡介?)

能讓免疫系統廣泛的對抗病毒和細菌

因為是百年前研發的疫苗 很安全

現在讓很多前線醫護人員人體試驗中

大概就是彭博社這則新聞過後 小道開始狂拉


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