FRIDAY, Sept. 4, 2020 (HealthDay Information) — A brand new clinical trial will attempt to decide whether or not the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine can shield well being care staff from being contaminated with COVID-19.
Lots of of hundreds of thousands of individuals have acquired the MMR vaccine because it was developed practically 50 years in the past. It is normally given to kids earlier than age 6. Rising proof means that the vaccine may stop COVID-19.
“We all know that the MMR vaccine is protected, and we expect there are two important causes that it might stop COVID-19,” mentioned researcher Dr. Michael Avidan, head of the division of anesthesiology at Washington College College of Drugs in St. Louis.
“The primary is that this vaccine consists of small quantities of stay however very weakened measles, mumps and rubella viruses,” Avidan defined in a college information launch. “This kind of vaccine seems to strengthen the physique’s immune response to infections on the whole, not simply to the viruses in that specific vaccine.”
The MMR vaccine may work as a result of it protects in opposition to viruses which are much like coronavirus. The researchers suppose that antibodies made to the MMR vaccine may additionally combat SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
As well as, the researchers hope that the MMR vaccine would possibly make instances of COVID-19 milder.
The trial is funded by a $9 million grant from the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis, Wellcome Belief, Mastercard, and different public and philanthropic donors.
Researchers hope to enroll as many as 30,000 well being care staff world wide. Individuals shall be randomly chosen to get the MMR vaccine or a placebo.
Most of these recruited for the trial will obtain a booster, as they possible acquired the vaccine as kids. However in some international locations the place the MMR vaccine is not extensively given, well being care staff could also be receiving the vaccine for the primary time, the researchers famous.
The international locations concerned within the research embody Canada, Ghana, Eire, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Every research participant shall be adopted for 5 months, and your entire trial is predicted to final a couple of 12 months, the researchers mentioned. Scientists at College School London (UCL) will compile the info from the trial.
