LONDON (Reuters) – Britain became the first country in the world on Wednesday to launch human trials in which volunteers will be deliberately exposed to COVID-19 to advance research into the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The process, which will begin in a month, will see up to 90 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30 exposed to the least amount of virus needed to cause the infection, scientists at the reporters told reporters. plans in a news briefing.
Volunteers will be examined for possible health risks before being allowed to participate and will be quarantined for close monitoring by medical staff for at least 14 days in a specialist unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
“The top priority, of course, is the safety of volunteers,” said Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, who is co-leading the project with the British government’s vaccine working group and the clinical company hVIVO. “None of us want to do this if there is an appreciable risk.”
Scientists have used provocative human tests for decades to learn more about diseases such as malaria, the flu, typhoid and cholera and to develop treatments and vaccines against them.
Trial participants will only be allowed to go home after the first 14 days if “extended testing” shows they are not infectious, said Chris Chiu, the trial’s chief investigator.
The purpose of this initial paper was “to understand how the virus infects humans and how it passes so successfully between us,” Chiu said. Subsequently, studies using challenging models could be conducted in the coming months and years to determine which vaccines and treatments work best, he said.
Volunteers will receive compensation payments of about 88 pounds ($ 122) per day during the study, which will also involve follow-up monitoring for a year, Chiu’s team said, and the studies will be conducted in -a safe and controlled environment and will minimize any risk.
To make the process as safe as possible, the March 2020 version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be used, rather than one of the new variants, they said.