The Coronavirus that broke out in Wuhan, Hubei province of China has claimed thousands of lives around the world especially in China, and has disrupted the normal workings of the world in sections of international business, sports, travel, and tourism among others.
Medical experts all over the world immediately embarked on developing a cure and vaccine for the novel virus, and a breakthrough may be reached soon, as a UK pharmaceutical company hVIVO is in advanced stages of testing the developed Coronavirus vaccine on humans.
According to UK news site The Times, hVIVO is looking for volunteers to participate in the clinical testing of the vaccine, and they will be paid £3500 (about Shs17m). Volunteers will be isolated for two weeks and allowed to literally just chill with amenities like TV, and the internet provided, but will run on a supervised diet.
That sounds great, not so? But there is a catch: Volunteers will be first infected with two less serious versions of the virus known as 0C43 and 229E which are believed to cause very mild respiratory symptoms, then the vaccine will be administered to them.
The medics at hVIVO believe that if the vaccine treats the above versions of the virus, chances are that it will be successful in combating the Coronavirus. The process will have nurses and doctors wearing protective clothing and ventilators as they take nasal swabs, and do blood tests of the volunteers.
Uganda is still free from the Coronavirus and the Ministry of Health has urged Ugandans to stay vigilant and protect themselves from the deadly virus.