INTERVIEW
While the coronavirus epidemic has already killed more than 1,000 people in China and more than 42,000 contaminations according to a last report, the professor of virology at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and researcher at CIRI (International Center for Research in Infectious Disease), Bruno Lina , wants to be reassuring on Europe 1. "With the last results obtained we realize we manage to identify the patients and avoid that those who are infected can transmit this virus to other people. We break the chains of transmission even when they have started to develop, this is typically the example of what happened in Contamines. We are in the process of controlling infection in these patients. "
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Containment measures bear fruit
In the town of Contamines Montjoie in Haute-Savoie, where five new cases of coronavirus were detected last week, the tests turned out to be negative. Very good news according to the professor. "The same thing is happening in other European countries where we see that the virus does not install chains of transmission."
In China, mainly in Hubei, home of the epidemic, strict containment measures have been put in place. Very positive signals for Bruno Lina. "We have the feeling, even if it is something that we have to control, that there are fewer cases now than last week. This means that we may be able to control the infection at source and at that point it means there will be no global broadcast. "
Work in progress on a vaccine
To try to contain the epidemic, scientists are working on a vaccine, but also on drugs to improve the care of infected patients. "There are two types of work in progress: first those on the vaccine which are still at a very preliminary stage because we need to understand the immune response to the infection. Today, we do not know identify in a healed patient what allowed this healing ", specifies the professor. "We have the possibility of making inactivated, attenuated, recombinant vaccines. All of this is still in the drafting stage today because we do not know what is the best strategy."
"Regarding the drugs, we have ongoing clinical trials," adds Bruno Lina. "A certain number of results should fall this week on the effectiveness of such or such drug. And all this research work, in France, on the discovery of new drugs which could help to limit the infection."