While the first two patients with the Chinese coronavirus in France are off the hook, a researcher from the Institut Pasteur spoke on the subject. According to him, our immune system is doing its job but the development of a vaccine remains very useful. Recall that in the world, nearly 7000 infected people are cured.
In the afternoon of February 12, 2020, the two recovered patients left Bichat Hospital in Paris. It was the couple in their thirties Chinese traveling in the capital since January 18. In an article published on January 13, France Info interviewed Frédéric Tangy, professor and director of the vaccine innovation laboratory at the Institut Pasteur. The expert spoke on the two cases of remission and how patients are healed.
Frédéric Tangy indicated that the patients just received palliative care intended to treat pathology and fever. Then, the latter were twice – 24 hours apart – subjected to diagnostic tests. The objective was to detect the presence of the virus in the secretions. After disappearance of symptoms and confirmation of both negative tests, the patients were discharged.
The treatment received by patients is nothing extravagant. It is about taking paracetamol in case of fever, assistance in case of breathing difficulties. In reality, our immune system makes the virus go away . Frédéric Tangy mentioned the mention of "viral clearance", that is to say the body's ability to evacuate the virus thanks to the immune response.
Frédéric Tangy indicates that coronavirus infections are acute, not chronic and therefore very short. Regarding Covid-19, the infection seems longer . If the expert recalls that the incubation period is generally from one week to ten days, a recent study in China estimates that the maximum incubation period is 24 days.
Frédéric Tangy's team is currently working on developing a vaccine against Covid-19. According to him, the usefulness of a vaccine is not to be questioned even if patients recover. In case of vaccination, the virus cannot spread and measures like quarantine then become unnecessary.
Thus, the vaccine will be more than useful in the event that current measures, particularly taken in China, are not sufficient to stem the epidemic. Moreover, having a vaccine available could obviously make it possible to react more quickly in the future , in case of a new epidemic.
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