Medicines with no history and quick tests, this is how the US fights against the coronavirus

Treatments with scarce medical literature to back them up, rapid tests and accelerated investment in research for vaccines, thus are trying to fight the coronavirus the authorities of U.S, where the virus has already left more than 234 thousand infected and 5 thousand 607 deaths.

Despite reacting somewhat late, There are signs that call hope for the country with more cases of coronavirus of the worldBecause he has taken great steps towards the development of his own vaccine and has put into circulation new tests with which he wants to end the waiting hours and even days that some Americans have to endure to know if they are infected.

UNTESTED DRUGS

In the absence of treatments of coronavirus with scientific backing, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urgently approved this week a plan to distribute millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine Y chloroquine, two drugs used to treat malaria and are now used in critically ill patients with COVID-19 despite insufficient studies to support its benefits.

The agency assures that although there is little medical literature that indicates that they can serve to mitigate the symptoms of the most acute symptoms, the risk is outweighed by the possible benefits.

However, some experts have expressed concern about this step taken by the FDA, since, in the absence of conclusive studies, they consider that The side effects of these medications can pose a danger if their use is extended, especially for people with heart disease or taking medications that slow the heart rate.

Still, the combination of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine has been used in hospitals around the world against COVID-19.

In addition, the US Government authorized doctors across the country on March 24 using plasma from patients who recovered from coronavirus As a treatment for those in critical condition.

FASTER TEST

From March 20 to April 1, the US went from performing 103.6 daily tests per million inhabitants to 304.7, ranking only behind Italy, according to Our World In Data, a project in which the University of Oxford participates.

This is due in part to the landing in the country of the so-called rapid tests, which allow the results to be known “in situ” in less than an hour, in contrast to the hours or days of tests that must be sent to a laboratory. .

On March 22, the FDA approved the emergency use of a test developed by the Cepheid laboratory that allows to diagnose in approximately 45 minutes the coronavirus.

Six days later, the agency gave the green light to a test manufactured by Abbot that gives the results in less than 15 minutes, although it also authorized it only for emergency use. That pharmacist specified that it can offer positive results in five minutes, and negative results in thirteen.

The pharmaceutical company also assured that it intends to deliver 50 thousand tests a day to the country’s health system. He also indicated that he expects to produce around five million a month.

Even so, many states are not being able to carry out all the pertinent tests or accumulate the samples to be analyzed in the laboratories.

This is the case of California, the most populous state in the country, where according to data from The COVID Tracking Project only 31,038 tests have been carried out and where 59,100 people are waiting for results; an alarming figure if one takes into account that New York has carried out more than 220,000 tests, despite the fact that 20 million fewer residents reside there.

INVESTMENT TO FIND A VACCINE

In mid-March, or did it become public that the President Donald trump unsuccessfully attempted to seize the exclusive right to a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by a German company. Just one hour later, testing of another vaccine in humans began in the United States.

It was in Seattle, in the state of Washington -one of the most affected at that time-, where the Kaiser Permanente Institute of Sanitary Research began on March 16 to administer this vaccine to 45 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years old, who became part of this six-week clinical trial that day.

The vaccine, developed by Kaiser Permanente and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is called RNA-1273.

Other laboratories in the country are also trying to find a vaccine against the new coronavirus, such as Johnson & Johnson, which signed a billion dollar contract with the federal government to guarantee the manufacture of more than one billion doses.

Although this company has said that it does not believe it can start human tests before September and acknowledges that, at the earliest, its vaccine will be ready in early 2021.

For its part, the University of Pittsburgh published a study this Thursday in which it declared having successfully tested a vaccine that neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus in mice, causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the institution clarified that the clinical study in humans will take months.

JM

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