Home » News » “It’s our own immune system that makes the virus go”, explains a researcher from the Pasteur Institute

“It’s our own immune system that makes the virus go”, explains a researcher from the Pasteur Institute

Frédéric Tangy, professor at the Institut Pasteur, heads the team which is in the process of implementing a vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus.

These are the first cases of recovery from Covid-19 coronavirus, formerly known as 2019-nCoV, in France: two patients were discharged from Bichat hospital in the afternoon of Wednesday, February 12. Frédéric Tangy, professor and director of the vaccine innovation laboratory at the Pasteur Institute explains on francinfo on Wednesday that “it’s our own immune system that makes the virus go”. Frédéric Tangy, who heads the team that is putting in place a vaccine against the coronavirus, adds however that a vaccine is useful “if this epidemic does not manage to get back on its own”.

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Franceinfo: How were these two French patients discharged from Bichat hospital treated for this new coronavirus?

Frédéric Tangy: I do not have much information but a priori, they were treated by palliative care. That is to say that we just treated the pathology, the fever, and that they were checked by a diagnostic test which detects the presence of the virus in the secretions. They were tested probably for two consecutive days negative. They no longer have symptoms, so they are no longer infectious and can leave the hospital.

So does that mean there is a treatment?

It is not a specific treatment, that is, if you have a fever you are given paracetamol. If you have difficulty breathing, we help you breathe by intubating oxygen, etc. It is our own immune system that sends the virus. This is called viral clearance: the virus is eliminated little by little by the immune response. These infections are infections that are acute, not chronic, and therefore generally very short. The question that can be asked, actually with this current coronavirus infection, is that it seems a little longer than usual. Generally, these infections have an incubation period of one week to ten days. There, it could be that in some people it is longer. We have also seen people in China die a month after contracting the virus.

So what is the point of having a vaccine if you can finally cure the infection on your own?

The interest is first, if ever this epidemic does not manage to return all on its own. The vaccine is the equivalent of quarantine. That is to say that if we vaccinate all the people who are in contact with an infected person, the virus will not be transmitted, and will not leave this person. So it’s sort of a means of containment. If this epidemic lasts a long time, and we cannot manage to control it by the traditional means currently started in China, we could need within three months a vaccine. Then it’s for the future. If ever a future infection emerges, we can hope that with an equivalent vaccine, we will be able to contain it much faster. It’s always very difficult to say [quand un vaccin sera prêt]. The quickest methods may, perhaps, offer products to test within five to six months, but the more normal duration would be eight to twelve months.

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