Two news about the emerging corona virus “Covid-19”, one of which is wonderful and may represent great progress, and the second may be disturbing, so what are they?

Let's start with the good news, as German doctors discovered that an experimental heart failure drug cured a patient from the long-term complications of the Corona virus, known as "Long COVID".

And the name of the new drug is "BC 007" (BC 007), which is a compound developed by the German biotechnology company Berlin-Cures for the treatment of heart failure, and doctors are looking to use it on a large scale to treat Long-Covid patients.

The treatment led to the recovery of a 59-year-old man.

The news was reported by Deutsche Welle, Daily Mail, Times and Mirror.

The success of this drug could mean reducing recovery times to months, as many Covid patients say they suffer from persistent severe fatigue, headache and fever.

The patient was originally given the drug to treat glaucoma (an eye disease), before medics discovered that it also helped relieve the long-term symptoms of "Covid-19".

Hours

Glaucoma is called glaucoma, and it is not a single disease but rather a group of conditions that affect the eye and lead to damage to the optic nerve, and this damage usually - but not always - results from high pressure inside the eyeball.

"Even within a few hours there was improvement," said the doctors in Bavaria who treated him.

The drug is still in the second phase of clinical trials and has not yet been released to the market.

The drug works by attaching to and destroying autoantibodies, preventing them from attacking the body's organs.

Deutsche Welle described the event as "a first of its kind in the world".

The University of Erlangen explained, in a statement, "There was an improvement in just a few hours, and when the patient was discharged from the hospital, he felt more comfortable than he had before receiving the drug." The statement added that the 59-year-old regained his sense of taste and focus and also disappeared. All symptoms, to leave hospital after 3 days.

Doctors believed that BC007 could help overcome eye diseases, which could eventually lead to blindness, but they found that this drug is also useful in fighting the long-term symptoms of corona.

On the other hand, German doctors indicated that they are currently using the drug "BC007" in larger trials to see its effectiveness, and Dr. Christian Mardin said that more people can not be treated with this drug because he has not yet passed all the trials for approval.

What is Long Covid?

Many patients who have recovered from “Covid-19” suffer from complications after the Corona virus, also known as “Long Covid,” which includes effects that may last a long time after recovery from Corona.

Among the symptoms of long-term Covid:

  • Tired.

  • Shortness of breath.

  • chest pain or tightness;

  • Problems with memory and concentration (brain fog).

  • Difficulty sleeping (insomnia).

  • Heart palpitations.

  • Dizziness.

  • Joint pain.

  • depression and anxiety;

  • Tinnitus.

  • feeling sick

  • diarrhea.

  • stomach pain.

  • Anorexia.

  • high temperature;

  • cough.

  • a headache.

  • Sore throat.

  • Changes in the sense of smell or taste.

  • rash.

The news could be upsetting

We move to the second news that may disturb you, as the CEO of the American company Moderna, Stefan Bancel, expected the emergence of mutated strains more dangerous than Delta, stressing that they should be dealt with seriously in the coming days, in statements to the French newspaper Le Point.

And writers Guillaume Grayer and Caroline Torbe quoted Bansel as confirming that the mutated Delta strain should be taken seriously, noting that it would not be the last mutated strain, as he believed that there would be other more dangerous strains in the coming period.

Regarding the extent to which vaccines can protect us from new strains, Bancel says that when mutated strains reproduce, vaccines will not be able to provide protection for several years because the virus becomes different from the original virus, and the vaccine becomes less effective.

The CEO of Moderna believes that the Corona virus will not disappear from the planet, expecting that the epidemic will continue for another year or two, with cycles of variables that will lead to more vaccinations.

According to him, in the future, we will need booster doses ranging from 1 to 3 years, depending on age and health status, as "we can imagine that people aged between 18 and 50 years will receive a booster dose every 3 years, and people aged 50-65 years every two years, and the elderly every year.

With regard to newly vaccinated people, Bansel stresses that an additional dose will be useful within 6 to 9 months, “so it can be said that during the epidemic, that is, until 2022, repeated doses will be needed. After that, that is, from year 2023, lower doses will be needed."

Bancel predicts that by 2022 there will be more vaccines than people who want to vaccinate or get an extra dose, but he explains that despite their effectiveness, there are complications in vaccinating people with cancer or those with autoimmune diseases.

Bancel stresses the importance of protecting health care workers, which necessarily guarantees the protection of patients, and says in this context, "This is what the authorities in the United States began to demand, as some hospitals obligated health care employees to take the vaccine in order to instill a sense of safety in patients. ".