Author Catherine Ducroy in the French newspaper Les Echos asked what could the pharmaceutical industry contribute to in the first stage of the emergence of the new Corona disease in China, at a time when the latter and perhaps the whole world fear a new epidemic due to viral pneumonia? To respond as nothing.

The author considered that it is necessary first to learn more about the virus and obtain its genome sequences in order to develop an ultimately diagnostic test, noting that during the SARS epidemic in 2003, during the SARS epidemic, it managed to develop a test of this type in eight weeks, but it was for use My search only.

Respiratory symptoms
The symptoms of the new pneumonia that began in China are attributed to a new type of corona virus, similar to viruses whose genetic inheritance is carried on RNA, such as the influenza virus that caused the SARS epidemic (2002). 2003.

The newspaper pointed out that infection with the new corona virus often causes symptoms of common colds in humans, but some of them can lead to more serious respiratory conditions.

The current virus - according to Arno Fontane, head of the Epidemiology Unit for Emerging Diseases at the Pasteur Institute in Paris - is "the seventh with which clinical effects appear in humans."

"There is a certain degree of human-to-human transmission," experts at the Wellcome Trust and Chinese authorities say, and this is the deciding factor in determining whether we are dealing with a simple local epidemic or contamination related to seafood.

Quarantine
In the event that the infection is transmitted from person to person, as the author says, the only response is early diagnosis and quarantine, especially since it is not likely that the current influenza drugs, especially Tamiflu, will be effective because the new virus is different from the flu, and this drug has been Tested against SARS in 2003 and did not give any results.

The newspaper concluded that the need for 12 years to develop a drug for this virus means that the approach is wrong, noting that the reason to resort to Tamiflu, which was not completely effective during the bird flu epidemic in 2005, was that this drug was declared in 2000 and remained without use .

Vaccine development
For its part, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization confirmed that developing a vaccine against the new Corona virus that appeared in China will likely need at least a year.

"It is now difficult to assess the risks of the virus," added Alliance Executive Director Seth Berkeley in a statement to German news agency Thursday. "But the good news is that scientists have already decoded and published the virus's genetic code, which has enabled many organizations around the world to start." To develop an anti-virus vaccine. "

The epidemiologist explained that it is much easier to develop vaccines against corona viruses than to develop vaccinations against diseases such as malaria and HIV, "However, it will take several months before starting field trials of the new vaccine, and it will take at least a year before there is a vaccine A ready-to-use antivirus against the Corona virus. "

Berkeley pointed out that the number of confirmed cases of infection with the virus continues to increase, because the Chinese authorities are subjecting more people with symptoms of influenza to a test that reveals infection with the new virus.