Havana, Cuba.- A vaccine candidate used in patients with Covid-19 in severe and critical stages shows positive results in Cuba, the Ministry of Public Health explained today.
This is CIGB 258, a vaccine designed to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, which shows efficacy in patients with Covid-19, Francisco Durán, National Director of Epidemiology, explained at an updating press conference.
The critical and critical patient with Covid-19 is currently facing a cytokine storm, a process that exceeds inflammations to the limit, blocks the immune system and this phenomenon leads to the death of the patient with the SARS-Cov-2 virus, added the specialist.
Unlike what happens in the rest of the world, that only 20 percent of severe patients manage to reverse this situation, the drug that has been tested in 52 patients reports a survival in the critical state of 78 percent.
The vaccine, developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology also shows that 92 percent of them have recovered in seriously ill patients treated in Cuba, Durán said.
The specialist commented in his usual press conference to update on the evolution of the disease in Cuba, which is also tested with the Itolizumab monoclonal antibody, the results of which show that 80 percent of seriously ill patients survive.
After more than 60 days from the confirmation of the first positive cases of Covid-19 in Cuba, this country is going through a favorable moment in its contagion curve, and in the last few days the reports of new cases range between 10 and 20.
One of the reasons, in the opinion of specialists, constitutes the government strategy deployed to face the epidemic, which includes the action of all branches of knowledge, from the natural, exact and biological sciences, as well as computer science and communications. .
As the Cuban Government has ordered, upon arrival in the country all passengers will go to isolation centers, where they must remain for 14 days.