Sao Paulo, March 3 The Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo, one of the most reputable medical entities in Brazil, announced this Thursday that its combined vaccine against influenza and the coronavirus obtained “promising results” in tests carried out on animals. The body, linked to the Government of the state of Sao Paulo (southeast Brazil), said in a note that the human tests of this joint vial “could begin” within a maximum period of “one year”, according to its calculations. “The single vaccine candidate is in the testing phase in animal models that, after immunization, produced reactive antibodies to the three strains of the influenza virus (H1N1, H3N2 and B), as well as the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” he pointed out. the Butantan. The new formula combines the so-called ‘ButanVac’, the vaccine that Butantan is developing against covid-19 and which is in the clinical trial phase, with the one it already produces against influenza, which is used throughout Brazil to through the National Immunization Program (PNI). In addition, in the first stage of experiments, not only did it show its effectiveness against covid-19 and influenza, but “it gave indications that it may have a more robust and lasting immune response than current vaccines,” explained Paulo Lee Ho, a researcher scientist at the Butantan BioIndustrial Center. “The results are excellent because we see that it works” and “produces much more effective protection against the two pathogens,” he said. Brazil is, along with the United States and India, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which in two years has caused 650,000 deaths and almost 29 million infections. These numbers place the country as the second with the most deaths linked to the disease, behind the United States, and the third with the most positives, after the North American nation (78.3 million) and India (42.9 million), according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In the vaccination section, which began in Brazil on January 17, 2021, 80% of the 213 million Brazilians received the first dose and 73% have the complete immunization schedule, while around 30% He’s already given the booster dose. EFE cms/wgm/cpy
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