The Solution Against The Coronavirus: In Search Of The Vaccine
The coronavirus continues to cause concern in everyone, even in pet guardians, since they do not want the well-being of their faithful companions to be also in check.Recently it has been commented that a vaccine may be available very soon. Now, will a vaccine be the solution against the coronavirus?
Next we will review the history of vaccines and, of course, their relationship with the animal kingdom.
The history of vaccines
Often times, the terms “plague”, “plague” or “epidemic” are used synonymously among specialists to refer to the history of especially contagious diseases.
Many of these diseases are caused by viral particles, for which there is not a great diversity of treatments, contrary to what happens with bacterial diseases.
Therefore, its management focuses on the development of methods that stimulate the immunity of the affected individual, as is the case with vaccines. And that is the reason why, given the situation we live in at the moment, it is considered whether a vaccine is the solution against the coronavirus.
The reason for the creation of the first vaccine for humans
The first vaccine in history was created in the eighteenth century, when the researcher Edgard Jenner made sure of two things: that there were people who got cowpox – much milder than humans -; and that, after passing the symptoms of this disease, these people did not get the deadly human smallpox.
With these data, Jenner proceeded to perform the experiment that came up with the first vaccine. So he gave a boy cowpox, waited for him to recover, and then injected him with human smallpox.
The child did not suffer from the disease since his body, having previously suffered from the virus, had developed the necessary antibodies to fight it.
The next step: attenuation of the virus
The problem with the first vaccines was that the inoculated virus caused a disease in the individual and, sometimes, the remedy could be worse than the disease.
That is why the concept of attenuation was developed, which consists of reducing the virulence of the pathogen before inoculating it to the patient. This technique was launched thanks to Pasteur and his team of researchers, honoring Jenner’s discovery and ultimately coining the term “vaccine.”
It is always possible to go one step further: the inactivation of the virus
Live vaccines greatly improved disease prevention, but they had a number of drawbacks, such as:
- attenuation can be suddenly reversed and the virus can become infectious again.
- vaccines require a more rigorous preservation process, which increases costs.
In view of this, years later, an American research team discovered the possibility of inactivating the virus, reducing the previous inconveniences.
The new generation vaccines: will the solution against the coronavirus be among them?
From the first moment they have not stopped looking for the best alternatives to optimize the vaccination processes and avoid any derived problems. Thanks to the technological and scientific advances of the last century, this is being possible.
Most modern vaccines are obtained by genetic engineering for the most part. This is how it is achieved that they activate the immune response, but that they do not cause disease.
There are several types of new generation vaccines and in general they consist of:
- the virus, from which the genes that cause disease have been removed.
- the genetic material of the virus that codes for the antigens that activate the immune system.
- that genetic material, but obtained synthetically, that is, without using the microorganism.
- another pathogen that acts as a vector for the antigens against which you want to create immunity.
Is a vaccine really the solution against the coronavirus?
Today it can be said that there are many diseases under control thanks to vaccination. This is the case of measles or chickenpox, which, despite continuing to affect the population, remain at bay.
However, many other diseases are widespread, deadly and have no vaccine, either because it has not yet been discovered, or because the disease is very new.
2020 will be remembered as the year the world was paralyzed by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. A virus that, although it does not show a very high lethality, has proven to put in check even countries with developed health systems. All for the simple fact that the transmission occurs at unparalleled speeds.
The coronavirus cannot be treated with antibiotics, antivirals are not usually very effective and we also need to stop the chain of infections. And for this, the only solution that seems plausible is vaccination. Activate the immune system of the world population so that the body can reject the coronavirus as soon as it is infected.
