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Italy presented human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, joining a global effort to expand a reaction to the virus that has shown symptoms of resurgence in Europe.
Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute, a hospital specializing in infectious diseases, will conduct trials with 90 volunteers in the coming weeks, in the hope that a vaccine will be available in the spring of next year.
Francesco Vaia, director of physical conditioning at Spallanzani Hospital, told Reuters that the first patient would be monitored for 4 hours before being allowed to return home, where he will be kept for 12 weeks.
“We’ll see if it produces side effects and if it produces neutralizing antibodies,” Vaia said, adding that the phase at the moment will be positioned in countries with high rates of infection, such as Mexico and Brazil.
“If we can be quick, we will have the first successes in the market next spring,” added Vaia.
The prospective vaccine, called GRAd-COV2, was developed through ReiThera, a company founded in Rome. The Lazio region, around the Italian capital, said in a report that initial tests, adding animals, had yielded positive results.
Potential vaccines are being tested in several countries, including India, Britain, Russia and China, as scientists rush to the bottom of the secrets of a virus that emerged less than 20 years ago. ‘a year.
“The minds and studies of our country are at the service of the global challenge to defeat COVID,” Health Minister Roberto Speranza wrote on Facebook at the start of the trial.
Italy, one of the most affected countries in Europe with more than 35,000 deaths, experienced a peak in the epidemic between March and April before the epidemic seemed to recede. But since then he has noticed an increase in the number of new instances with more than 1,000 registered on Saturdays and Sundays.
Other countries in Europe experienced even greater leaps with the easing of strict restrictions and social estating measures previously imposed in the year.
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