THE coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. At the moment no [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] specific vaccines and treatments are available. However, with general treatments such as pain relievers, cough syrup and rest patients may recover, depending on their immune system as well. Drug makers are racing to develop a cure for the contagion that has so far killed at least 365,000 people. To date, 10 candidate vaccines are already in clinical evaluation and four inactivated vaccines and one adenovirus vaccine belongs to researchers in China. In addition, about 123 candidate vaccines are still in preclinical studies. Development of vaccines is a rigorous and complex procedure. Vaccine production which faces many uncertainties may take a long period of time. Our health ministry is hoping that Malaysia would be selected as the study site for vaccines in order to expedite the search for a cure. Meanwhile, the ministry is already planning to make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory once the vaccine is found and proven to be effective. [/ihc-hide-content]
