LONDON (CU)_The United Kingdom is set to conduct the world’s first Covid-19 human trial, in order to study the impact of the deadly virus on the immune system of a healthy body.
The purpose of the study is to help scientists understand several factors, including how an infected individual “sheds” infectious virus particles into the environment.
Accordingly, ninety healthy adult volunteers, aged between 19 and 30, will be exposed to the virus in a safe and controlled environment. Researchers say the trial will only involve young and healthy volunteers who are at very low risk of becoming severely ill from Coronavirus infection.
“Our eventual aim is to quickly test which vaccines and treatments work best in beating this disease… [and] to understand how the virus infects people and how it passes so successfully between us” Dr Chris Chiu, Chief Investigator from the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, said.
The trial, backed by a £33.6 million investment of the British government, will begin in the next few weeks by a partnership between Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the clinical company hVIVO.
Once the initial study has taken place, a small number of volunteers who are then exposed to Covid-19 would be inoculated with vaccine candidates which have proven to be safe, in order to identify the most effective vaccines and accelerate their development.
“While there has been very positive progress in vaccine development, we want to find the best and most effective vaccines for use over the longer term,” UK’s Business Secretary said. “These human challenge studies, the world’s first will take place here in the UK and will help accelerate scientists’ knowledge of how coronavirus affects people and could eventually further the rapid development of vaccines.”
The researchers say the safety of the volunteers is of utmost importance and their health will be closely monitored throughout trial which has been reviewed by the UK Health Research Authority, in order to ensure that it meets the highest ethical standards.
Similar human trials have been previously conducted in order to develop treatments for a number of diseases such as cholera, malaria, typhoid and flu.
