![]() ![]() ![]() Since then, it has been the most used vaccine in the world, with around 130 million children vaccinated every year. The BCG vaccine may well be a bridge to a specific COVID-19 vaccine.īacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is a live attenuated vaccine that was developed against tuberculosis at the beginning of the 20th century at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. In the meantime, other measures for preventing the spread of the virus are urgently needed. ![]() Only an effective vaccine can curb the spread of the virus but that is expected to take at least 12–18 months to develop. It is expected that the infection will remain entrenched in the population in the years to come, with regular outbreaks when quarantine measures are relaxed, or during winter when spread might be more common. While aggressive containment measures have been initiated by many parts of the world, the number of cases is still rising, with Europe and the United States now being the hot spots of the pandemic, but with an increasing number of cases in developing countries, stoking fears of a severe global health crisis. At the time of writing, SARS-CoV-2 has killed more than 264,000 people, with over 2 million infected, and has given rise to a global economic shutdown, which is predicted to lead to a depression more serious than the great depression of the 1930s. However, a significant minority of patients progress to severe pneumonia with ARDS, respiratory insufficiency and even death, particularly older patients 1. Most individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 remain asymptomatic or develop a mild-to-moderate disease that is mainly characterized by upper respiratory tract symptoms. It is caused by a newly identified viral pathogen named on 11 February 2020 as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 is a new form of respiratory tract infection that can be complicated by severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ![]()
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