Research suggests that a tuberculosis vaccine may be helping Taiwanese people fight off COVID-19. The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, or BCG, is administered to all children in Taiwan to fight TB. Doctors say it may have strengthened immune systems in a way that is regulating the epidemic in countries where the BCG is used. Meanwhile, a study looking at patients in Japan, Canada and the U.S. has found good results for COVID-19 patients taking the drug remdesivir. Although small in scale, the trials suggest promising outcomes even for patients given the drug after being put on mechanical ventilation. In Taiwan, soon after birth children are given the BCG vaccine that protects against TB. Now research from the U.S. and Japan suggests countries like Taiwan, where everyone gets the BCG, have a lower mortality rate from COVID-19. That could mean the vaccine is helping protect people against coronavirus.Huang Li-minThe Infectious Diseases Society of TaiwanThis is a survey. It hasn’t been completely proven yet. The BCG vaccine trains the immune system. It makes its front-line reaction to threats stronger. Now it seems very possible that because of that strengthening of the immune system, people who’ve had the BCG find it easier to deal with the coronavirus.Across the world, scientists are working urgently on possible tests, vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.An article just published in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at a small-scale clinical trial of the drug remdesivir. Of the patients who were receiving mechanical ventilation, more than half were extubated after taking remdesivir. Almost half were eventually discharged from hospital. Meanwhile a study in Taiwan has found that getting remdesivir within four days of infection can quickly reduce the person’s viral load.Huang Li-minThe Infectious Diseases Society of TaiwanRemdesivir is useful at any level of usage. But it’s in very short supply, and it’s still in the clinical trial stage. Remdesivir is recently discovered. It hasn’t been proved ineffective – we think it is effective. It’s probably one of the most reliable at the moment.Taiwanese researchers are trying to secure a larger-scale clinical trial for remdesivir. The National Health Research Institutes have indicated that they will try to mass-produce the drug in Taiwan if it’s needed.
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